I like being fooled. When I watch someone who does sleight-of-hand and fools me, it's a great feeling.

- Ricky Jay

Not only do I lie, I take real pleasure in lying, in the transmission of magic effects.

- Ricky Jay

Once you get into the era of the printed book, it gets a little easier. After years and years, you make a serious survey of that literature, and then…

- Ricky Jay

The book says we may be through with the past but the past ain't through with us.

- Ricky Jay

If it sounds too good to be true, it always is.

- Ricky Jay

For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.

- Ricky Jay

I know absolutely nothing about the 20th Century.

- Ricky Jay

The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.

- Ricky Jay

One of the reasons I don't like to use the word "tricks" , I do think of them as theatrical pieces, and as pretentious as that might sound, there's a…

- Ricky Jay