David Blaine Quotes

Quotes by and about David Blaine

(Continued from his main entry on the site.)

Blaine: "I was only five years old when I told my mom that I was going to be a showman."

Blaine: "What's cool [about what I do] is that ... [I have] nobody telling [me] what to do. There [are] no rules."

Blaine: "[My love for magic] has to do with astonishment and control. It was as if my hands had an independent need to manipulate things."

Blaine: "[You feel an] incredible electric rush ... when your magic really affects someone."

Blaine: "When I do these challenges, I try to imagine how they will look as an image, almost even how they will photograph. For example, how the water tank [challenge] came about is that I started thinking about how someone would look living in a sphere. That's mainly how I operate."

Blaine: "People are always asking me why I do these things to myself. I don't really have a concise answer to that question."

Blaine: "There's an inherent problem with the challenges I take on. The latest one always has to top the last one. People mention a death wish, but I don't think that's the case."

Blaine: "I know that when I push myself to the absolute limit, I feel more alive than ever."

Blaine: "I'd like to bring magic [to] the streets, genuinely. ... The reason for magic is to ... make [people] happy, or let them forget their problems for two minutes."

Blaine: "You don't have any control over when you die. When it's my time, it's my time. There's nothing you can do to prevent that. People might say that I can do something about it by not getting buried alive or standing on top of a pole or whatever. But you can't."

Blaine: "You [shouldn't] be preachy. ... I don't want [to do] life lessons. ... I don't want to be the guy who's pushing any sort of message."

Blaine: "I think the reason people try to say, 'oh, the ice isn't real,' or whatever, is because for them to accept that it's real means that they have to accept that other humans can [also] do it, meaning [they] themselves."

Blaine: "[People would] rather sit on their couch, watch TV and criticize everything else instead of trying to live their life."

Blaine: "No [woman] wants to put up with me. I think people expect more from me than I really can give. ... If a woman said, 'I really want you to focus on your work,' instead of 'I don't want you to cheat on me,' I think things would be easier."

Blaine: "[In writing my book 'Mysterious Stranger' I needed help to] turn my thoughts into actual words."

Adam Kimmel [to Blaine:] "I've met a lot of artists in my life, but I've never met one who takes as many risks as you do."

Chuck Bednar: "His streetwise personality gained him the nickname 'The Hip-Hop Houdini.'"

The Telegraph: "[He is a] crust of cool surrounding a molten core."

The Telegraph: "He's a thorough sensualist (food, sex and exercise are favourite pastimes), whose career is a study in asceticism."

The Telegraph: "He is as rootless as any American self-made man, and yet wishes for a history that might explain him."

[Harry Houdini's niece on Blaine's week-long burial stunt:] "My uncle did some amazing things, but he could not have done this. ... He wouldn't have had the patience that David showed."