Quotes & Sayings About Houdini

I didn't really know much about the Houdinis when I started. As soon as they sent me the script, I wanted to find out everything I could about Bess. Luckily, I have a really wonderful friend named Michael Mitnick, who's a writer. He was a magician as a child, and that led him to the theater, which led to drama school, and he writes films now. Magic was really his thing, growing up, so he put me in touch with his magic teacher who is a real Houdini expert. — Kristen Connolly

It was on the steamer carrying him through the Golden Gate that he happened to reach down into the hole in the lining of the right pocket of his overcoat and discover the envelope that his brother had solemnly handed to him almost a month before. It contained a single piece of paper, which Thomas had hastily stuffed into it that morning as they all were leaving the house together for the last time, by way or in lieu of expressing the feelings of love, fear, and hopefulness that his brother's escape inspired. It was the drawing of Harry Houdini, taking a calm cup of tea in the middle of the sky, that Thimas had made in his notebook during his abortive career as a librettist. Josef studied it, feeling as he sailed toward freedom as if he weighed nothing at all, as if every precious burden had been lifted from him. — Michael Chabon

What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes. — Harry Houdini

There were moments where I was being kicked in the stomach, and even though I had this brace on to protect me, I still had to prepare myself for it . You can't be relaxed when that's happening. You have to brace your muscles. I can remember thinking as it was about to happen "Wasn't that how Houdini died?" I think it was. — Emily Mortimer

One of my inspirations, Harry Houdini, remains an icon of the art because he defied our primal fears. His demonstrations in the early 20th century, especially his escape from the Chinese water torture cell, represented triumph over suffocation, drowning, disorientation and helplessness. — Criss Angel

The great trouble with magicians is the fact that they believe when they have bought a certain trick or piece of apparatus, and know the method of procedure, that they are full-fledged mystifiers. — Harry Houdini

Almost the first thing you see after entering the Houdini exhibition at the Jewish Museum is a large-screen film of Harry Houdini hanging by his ankles upside-down from a tall building, high over a sea of men in fedoras, and thrashing his way out of a straitjacket. — Robert Gottlieb

I drove through the suburbs, where all the houses looked identical, one variation of another of the same thing. I said to myself, I'd rather fire myself from a cannon, pick up the shit of elephants and eat it, suffocate inside Houdini's water tank, lie beneath the running horses, or sodomise a big cat in a cage and pay the consequences than get trapped in these suburbs of cardboard, gossip, and conformity. — Rawi Hage

Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most terrible of the elements. — Harry Houdini

Kiernan leans forward. "I'm guessing that's because you can make it work, Mr. Houdini. Maybe that's how you manage . . ." He pauses when my kick lands on his shin, but finishes the sentence anyway. ". . . some of your more elaborate escapes. — Rysa Walker

I am not an irretrievable skeptic. I am not hopelessly prejudiced. I am perfectly willing to believe, and my mind is wide open; but I have, as yet, to be convinced. I am perfectly willing, but the evidence must be sane and conclusive. — Harry Houdini

But then, so far as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledged his assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarial oath. — Harry Houdini

No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth. — Harry Houdini

No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom. — Harry Houdini

A magician is only an actor - an actor pretending to be a magician. — Harry Houdini

I make the most money, I think, in Russia and Paris, for the people of those countries are so willing to be amused, so eager to see something new and out of the ordinary. — Harry Houdini

My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear. — Harry Houdini

Disloyalty in trusted servants is one of the most disheartening things that can happen to a public performer. — Harry Houdini

Tommy. Tommy, who rolled him again fast, pinning Prophet underneath him, grabbing Prophet's wrists and holding them the ground above his head. Tommy, who kissed him before he could curse or think, an all-consuming, punishing grind of a kiss that promised Prophet exactly the fuck he was in for. God, he liked those kinds of promises. Needed Tommy to hold him down and make things okay, because he would. But he didn't stop struggling though, because hell, he wasn't going to lose his touch, wouldn't make it easy on the fucker who'd decided to go Houdini and bypass all the security cams, just because. But — S.E. Jakes

Kiernan gives him a suspicious look. "You performed at the Expo?"
"Yes," Bess answers. "Along with his brother, Dash. They headlined as The Brothers Houdini on the Midway Plaisance."
"Really?" Kiernan shakes his head. "I was there as well. For the entire run. I knew every headliner on the Midway."
Houdini eyes shift slightly. "Well, we weren't exactly headliners, but yes, we did perform at the Fair. — Rysa Walker

If I thought he had magic fingers, his lips were candidates for the Houdini Hall of Fame. — Katie MacAlister

Escapology has one thing going for it that probably made Harry Houdini such a superstar in his day and a legend in the present. Everyone wants to escape from something. Taxes, contracts, illness, work, the multitude of burdens that we chafe under are shadows from which we want to escape. — James Randi

Anyone who believes in magic is a fool. — Harry Houdini

Whereas you have someone like Houdini, who works really, really hard to get really, really famous, and then has actual intellectual ideas that he puts into the culture that stay there. — Penn Jillette

Pickpockets either work alone or in pairs, or what is called a mob. — Harry Houdini

I always have on my mind the thought that next year I must do something greater, something more wonderful. — Harry Houdini

Keep up your enthusiasm! There is nothing more contagious than exuberant enthusiasm. — Harry Houdini

An old trick well done is far better than a new trick with no effect. — Harry Houdini

Another method of eating burning coals employs small balls of burned cotton in a dish of burning alcohol. — Harry Houdini

The Sun represents the right half of the body and the Moon the left half ... — Harry Houdini

In all feats of fire-eating it should be noted that the head is thrown well back, so that the flame may pass out of the open mouth instead of up into the roof, as it would if the head were held naturally. — Harry Houdini

But it must not be thought that I say this out of personal experience: for in the many years that I have been before the public my secret methods have been steadily shielded by the strict integrity of my assistants, most of whom have been with me for years. — Harry Houdini

I think that in a year I may retire. I cannot take my money with me when I die and I wish to enjoy it, with my family, while I live. I should prefer living in Germany to any other country, though I am an American, and am loyal to my country. — Harry Houdini

Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything ... — Harry Houdini

I collect rare photographs ... I have two ... One of Houdini locking his keys in his car ... the other is a rare picture of Norman Rockwell beating up a child. — Steven Wright

Currently, his clients include the victims of a series of "Houdini-handcuff suicide killings," in which brown boys were handcuffed in the back of the police car and police claim they committed suicide: Victor White in Louisiana, Chavis Carter in Arkansas. Also Alesia Thomas of Los Angeles, a black woman who died after a police officer kicked her seven times in the crotch - there's a video the court will not release for fear of another Rodney King riot. — Anonymous

In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini. — Michael Chabon

I knew, as everyone knows, that the easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place some one is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death. That's what attracts us to the man who paints the flagstaff on the tall building, or to the 'human fly' who scales the walls of the same building. — Harry Houdini

I think if you would have cut Houdini with a knife, blood wouldn't come out, PR would. — Criss Angel

I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic. — Harry Houdini

It is just flipping unbelievable. He is a mixture of Harry Houdini and a greased piglet. He is barely human in his elusiveness. Nailing Blair is like trying to pin jelly to a wall. — Boris Johnson

Obama has figured out the best method to prepare the way for his verbal Houdini acts: Use political noise as the tune-up din before the aria. Perhaps his body temperature is so low, it sometimes takes him too long to break out the song. — Tina Brown

Never tell the auidience how good you are, they will soon find out for themselves. — Harry Houdini

To label Jason Randal a magician does a disservice. You'll think the laws of physics, nature, the universe itself have been suspended. He's as good as Houdini was at his best! — David Letterman

In 1921, Harry Houdini started his own film company called - wait for it - the Houdini Picture Corporation. — Kage Baker

Pulling a Houdini
Relationships are magic;
we're always getting each other out of handcuffs and strait-jackets
while locked in a steamer trunk underwater. — Beryl Dov

No one has the Houdini school of composition. — Morton Feldman

The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin. — Harry Houdini

As long as you can Houdini your way out of the Sisyphean constraints then originality happens. — David Mitchell

It was just like a digital fixation with cards and math and science and then I started to look at images of great magicians from Houdini down the line. — David Blaine

There's something about the Houdini act that is not always made clear - about the escape act in general. — James Randi

There was one moment, and it happened in school. I had a big final exam
we were supposed to write a 20-page report on this book about Houdini [Harry Houdini]. I probably would have loved reading it, but I didn't, so I just decided to make a little super-8 movie based on it. I tied myself to the railroad tracks and all that. I mean, this is kid stuff, but it impressed the teacher, and I got an A. And that was maybe my first turning point, when I said, 'Yeah, I wouldn't mind being a filmmaker.' — Tim Burton

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini, — Paul Muldoon

My father's book is about is about a number of things, but about Houdini's rage to not be a failure like his father, and it's also about converting X-rated material, namely bondage, into family friendly safe fare, which is what he did. It's also about death and resurrection, and rising to live again another day when everyone thinks you're dead. — Nicholas Meyer

Houdini, the magician who debunked magic, could not bear to see the great rationalist [Arthur Conan] Doyle enchanted by ghosts and frauds. And so he did what any friend would: He set out to prove spiritualism false and rob his friend Doyle of the only comforting fiction that was keeping him sane. It was the least he could do. — John Hodgman

A common pickpocket trick is for the operator to carry a shawl or overcoat carelessly over the left arm, and to take a seat on the right side of the person they intend to rob in a streetcar or other vehicle. — Harry Houdini

Eating coals of fire has always been one of the sensational feats of the Fire Kings, as it is quite generally known that charcoal burns with an extremely intense heat. — Harry Houdini

What the eyes sees, the ear hears, and the mind belives. — Harry Houdini

Through the eight books in 'The Treasure Chest' series, readers will meet twins Maisie and Felix and learn the secrets and rules of time travel, where they will encounter some of these famous and forgotten people. In Book 1, Clara Barton, then Alexander Hamilton, Pearl Buck, Harry Houdini, and on and on. — Ann Hood

The eating of burning brimstone is an entirely fake performance. — Harry Houdini

Magic is the sole science not accepted by scientists, because they can't understand it. — Harry Houdini

It is needless to say that women make the most patient as well as the most dangerous pickpockets. — Harry Houdini

Houdini connected to people on an emotional level so that when he would escape that straight jacket it wasn't about the straight jacket. It was about people looking at it and escaping poverty. When you have that it's the truest form of magic. — Criss Angel

My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the every-day commonplaces of my business. — Harry Houdini

I remember finding a Houdini book at the library and seeing an image of him chained on the side of a building. He looked so intense and scary, and I couldn't get that image out of my head. That started building up my love of magic. — David Blaine

I must fling myself down and writhe; I must strive with every piece of force I possess; I bruise and batter myself against the floor, the walls; I strain and sob and exhaust myself, and begin again, and exhaust myself again; but do I feel pain? Never. How can I feel pain? There is no place for it. — Harry Houdini

I've always loved Houdini, not just because of what he did, but also because of what he stood for. He was a self-made man in a time when the idea of celebrity was still new, and he used his celebrity for good. — Michael Redhill

If I had a bad day, which, now that I ran my own life, was a helluva lot less than the old days, I sat on the floor with Houdini, placed a hand on his broad head, and soaked up endless doggy wonder. A full stomach, a well-chewed toy, a soft couch - through a dog's eyes, that was a true glory that couldn't be matched, the only heaven in existence. I missed the furball, missed him like crazy. — Rob Thurman

My Brain is the key that sets me free. — Harry Houdini

But her favorite is the Houdini fantasy. Big Red disagrees with his biographers, who say that he was driven by his longing to shuck off this mortal coil. She knows that he was all the time just searching for a box that could hold him. — Karen Russell

The secret of showmanship consists not of what you really do, but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do. — Harry Houdini

I don't think you can say something is or isn't magic. That's what was cool about Houdini, because he was a magician who had a magic show, but he was also an escape artist, and they kind of, over time, blended together. They both kind of enhance each other, I think. — David Blaine

As a kid, I always was obsessed with Houdini. — David Blaine

The great day of the Fire-eater - or, should I say, the day of the great Fire-eater - has passed. — Harry Houdini

To cause the face to appear in a mass of flame make use of the following: mix together thoroughly petroleum, lard, mutton tallow and quick lime. Distill this over a charcoal fire, and the liquid which results can be burned on the face without harm. — Harry Houdini

They seal the subway change-booth guy up inside this thing with bullet-proof glass, closed in on all sides, it's like some kind of Houdini torture tank of doom. How do you breathe in there? It looks like if you put your hand over the change slot, you could suffocate him in thirty seconds. — Jerry Seinfeld

Rosabelle - answer - tell - pray, answer - look - tell - answer, answer - tell. — Harry Houdini

I'm tired of fighting, Dash. I guess this thing is going to get me. — Harry Houdini

Only one man ever betrayed my confidence, and that only in a minor matter. — Harry Houdini

I'm tired of fighting. — Harry Houdini

Houdini used to pull rabbits out of a hat, but he never tried to make a living out of selling them when he had pulled them out of the hat — Tommy Douglas

Goes like a Magician soona without a wings and soon he will follow his own death like Houdini. — Deyth Banger

What simple and
ordinary lives we live,
underneath the shadows
of projection screen
artists — Phil Volatile

I do not believe that ghosts or spirits exist. — Harry Houdini

The pickpocket is usually very well dressed and of prepossessing appearance. — Harry Houdini

Flames from the lips may be produced by holding in the mouth a sponge saturated with the purest gasoline. — Harry Houdini

Some say I do it this way, others say I do it that way, but I say I do it the other way. — Harry Houdini

How the early priests came into possession of these secrets does not appear, and if there were ever any records of this kind the Church would hardly allow them to become public. — Harry Houdini

They do tricks even I can't figure out. — Harry Houdini

It is still an open question, however, as to what extent exposure really injures a performer. — Harry Houdini