Penn Jillette Quotes

I never wanted to be a magician. I never wanted to be a comedian. I never wanted to be onstage.

Penn Jillette

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Quotes to Explore

• When I have people around, I'm a chatterbox. But when I'm alone, I never speak. I don't talk to myself; it's just not my schtick.

  

  J. C. Chandor
  • People
  • Alone
  • Myself

• It is something where I think that people need to take a step back and realize how bad these things we are doing really are for our ears. But nobody really thinks about it. We're playing shows every night with music in our ears. That's just the industry.

  

  Taylor Dye
  • People
  • Music
  • Bad

• The clash of civilizations or the clash between Islam and the West may be cliches. But there is an even bigger cliche around: that this clash actually goes on within Islam, between reformists and fanatics.

  

  Pankaj Mishra
  • May
  • Islam
  • West

• I've always been excited by rotoscoping, the technique used in films like 'Waking Life,' which fuses animation with real-life emotion. It seemed like it was a process ripe for innovation.

  

  Aaron Koblin
  • Life
  • Real
  • Process

• The very moment you understand that being a Muslim and being American or European are not mutually exclusive, you enrich your society. Promote the universal principles of justice and freedom, and leave the societies elsewhere to find their model of democracy based on their collective psychology and cultural heritage.

  

  Tariq Ramadan
  • American
  • Society
  • Freedom

• Hear the other side.

  

  Saint Augustine
  • Hear
  • Side
  • Other

• I will go running when I'm stressed out. The running helps, but more than anything, I'll put music on and then I'll run. I'll cry and get it all out.

  

  Gayle Forman
  • Music
  • Running
  • Run

• It might be useful to distinguish between pleasure and joy. But maybe everybody does this very easily, all the time, and only I am confused.

  

  Zadie Smith
  • Joy
  • Pleasure
  • Confused

• Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit.

  

  Babe Ruth
  • God
  • Man
  • Almighty

• Nature was here a series of wonders, and a fund of delight.

  

  Daniel Boone
  • Nature
  • Here
  • Delight

• Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, 'What kind of music do you make?', and you say, 'Pop music.' You may as well have 'I'm not cool' stamped on your forehead.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • Music
  • May
  • Party

• I've kept my phone on silent for a year and a half. For me, it's too much noise. It's not my jam. I like to keep things a lot more easygoing. The world's not going to stop if you don't pick up your phone.

  

  Carly Pope
  • Up
  • World
  • Stop

• I grew up in a small town in Alabama, and there wasn't much in the way of entertainment, so like our older siblings before us, we drove our pickup trucks out into the hayfield and lit a bonfire.

  

  Abbi Glines
  • Up
  • Way
  • Small

• The FA Cup for all the fans does mean something special.

  

  Eden Hazard
  • Mean
  • Fans
  • Special

• I have to go through auditions, and my surname has got me into rooms, but I'll never know if it gets me any jobs. There's a lot of sexism and objectification, and a lot of people put you down.

  

  Oona Chaplin
  • People
  • Me
  • Down

• I never, ever would have imagined the kind of career I've had. It just wouldn't have occurred to me that anything like this could have been possible. I didn't have any such aspirations. And I still can't believe my good fortune.

  

  Edith Widder
  • Believe
  • Career
  • Possible

• We don't live by just sleeping and eating. We need pride and dignity in our lives. Work gives you that.

  

  Yoko Ono
  • Work
  • Live
  • Pride

• Every time I went to a family gathering, I was the boy who made it. I was a Professor at Harvard and everybody stood around in awe and listened to my every word, and all I felt was that horror that I knew inside that I didn't know. Of course, it was all such beautiful, gentle horror, because there was so much reward involved.

  

  Ram Dass
  • Time
  • Family
  • Beautiful

• The idea that a pupil is a passive recipient, a container waiting to be filled by the teacher's knowledge and instruction - all this is nonsense. Teaching is a living relationship, of give and take, of mutual learning.

  

  Yehudi Menuhin
  • Knowledge
  • Relationship
  • Learning

• Confidence is something you're born with. I know I had loads of it even at the age of 15.

  

  Hedy Lamarr
  • Confidence
  • Load

• It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

  

  Neil Gaiman
  • Children

• I never wanted to be a magician. I never wanted to be a comedian. I never wanted to be onstage.

  

  Penn Jillette