Derren Brown quotes - page 5

Derren Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, and author known for his mesmerizing stage shows and television specials. Combining psychology, suggestion, and sleight of hand, his performances challenge the boundaries of perception and belief. He has inspired audiences around the world with his thought-provoking approach to entertainment and mind reading. Here are 134 of his quotes:

Memory tricks, amongst other things which I'll show you, have got me banned from a lot of Casinos in this country.

Derren Brown

In magic, anyone with a shop-bought trick deck is a magician, and if people aren't fooled they usually pretend to be, and they are understandably likely to mistake being fooled as a sign of being in the presence of an excellent magician.

Derren Brown

Under British law, you're not allowed to fire a live round unless you are a qualified armourer. This is why the live game has to take place overseas.

Derren Brown

Moderate religious people may of course express distaste for such violence, pretending that the clear calls for grotesque and violent behaviour in their sacred book aren't there and cherry-picking the 'nice bits', but they are still guilty of not opening up the subject of belief to rational discourse, and in doing so are part of the machinery that leads to all the ugliness caused by fundamentalism.

Derren Brown

Every week we go to the supermarket and every week we allow ourselves to be manipulated by the packaging and layout of the goods.

Derren Brown

Performing the magic, for me, is not about convincing anyone I have amazing abilities. It's about providing a journey which comes to a place where the brain starts spinning. And of course, the best brains spin the most.

Derren Brown

What makes us dream of some things and not others? Why might we pick up on a trivial event from the day and not something more important? Would it be possible to have someone dream of specific subjects by subtly suggesting those ideas?

Derren Brown

There are three things I noticed about being thirty-three: Failing memory, hair loss and failing memory.

Derren Brown

A good communicator affects our physiology. The power of voice can entrance us – even induce or remove pain.

Derren Brown

[Magic] can be poorly presented and surrounded by naffness, and often amounts to little more than childish attempts to fool you. I guess it's largely to escape those associations that I've gone the route I have.

Derren Brown

Magic means nothing. It has the potential to connect us to something wonderful, as does any performance, but it is not wonderful in itself, for it is inseparable from the particular performance in which it is experienced. A magician who is too fast, too slow, mumbles, shouts, smells, is unlikeable or incomprehensible will unavoidably taint his magic with his personal failings.

Derren Brown

There will always be liars, swindlers and charlatans. Hopefully there will also always be the modern Houdinis and the seekers of the truth, snapping at their heels and holding them to account.

Derren Brown

In the same breath, one might add that the atheist is surely as religious as the Christian, in that he has adopted a set of beliefs to which he chooses to rigorously adhere. While it's temptingly clever to make that claim, it is a nonsensical statement; no more logical than to say that a Christian is a type of atheist. Having a set of beliefs about religion is not the same as being a religious True Believer.

Derren Brown

Magicians do not, as a rule, presume that their audiences are intelligent and sensitive enough to want the magic to be challenging and cathartic. This is not a healthy starting point, for it stultifies magic and leaves it too close to children's entertainment.

Derren Brown

Under the guise of a motivational seminar, in which I teach my skills to a group of middle-management business men and women, can I get any of them to steal one hundred thousand pounds in what they believe is a genuine armed robbery?

Derren Brown

Participant. A participant is active, a part of the process, and a necessary component of the magical experience. This is how it should be. No magic happens unless the participant perceives it as magical, so she can never be a mere spectator.

Derren Brown

I decided that my magic had to change. That I had to give serious thought to presentation. That, in fact, my presentation of the effects is where my impact as a magician lies – I realised that it can turn a good effect into something artistic and stunning.

Derren Brown

One minute she is a sweet old silly, knitting herself a set of syringe covers and talking about her favourite flowers, and the very next moment she has told you and your friends she has a ring supporting the back of her vagina.

Derren Brown

How would I describe what I do? I suppose a mixture of psychological reading and showmanship and a special form of poncing-about which kind of comes together to form the effect of thought reading and psychological influence but non, non-psychic... not ‘non-non-psychic', non-psychic.

Derren Brown

(In answer to the question ‘How would you describe yourself in three words?')

Derren Brown

Some people like to talk of intuition as a way of knowing truth; that gut reactions are as good as evidence based facts. It's a really silly way of thinking...

Derren Brown

It's Derren Brown, it's Derren Brown, it's Derren Brown, it's Derren Brown. He's very kind, he'll read your mind, even if you're blind, your thoughts he'll find.

Derren Brown