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Derren Brown
141 quotes
“Some athletes use the mind to try and improve stamina and strength. Can I use my mind to take it away?”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I control the conditions so my testers become my testees.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(In answer to the question ‘Were you at all scared of Chris Ryan?’) I wasn’t scared of Chris Ryan although I was a little bit put off by his white jeans. As a straight man that’s been in the SAS I found that surprising and it did throw me a little bit..”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(In answer to the question ‘How would you describe yourself in three words?’) Short and balding.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like my parrot, Figaro. Not in a wrong way – I mean, yes, he’ll do anything for a mouth full of seed but nothing tacky.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This program fuses magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship. I achieve all the results you’ll see here through a varied mixture of those techniques. At no point are actors or stooges used in the show.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are three things I noticed about being thirty-three: Failing memory, hair loss and failing memory.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fingers: We’ve all got them and we shouldn’t be embarrassed about them.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am embarrassingly incompetent at football or any kind of team sport. I’m so bad it would anger you.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is arguably the most affecting of the arts; intelligible to all people yet untranslatable into any other idiom. To Schopenhauer it was a direct expression of the ‘world will’... and was good when he had guests over.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We all get stuck in our belief systems, however sensible we think they are. To me, the New Age community is particularly guilty of not testing or challenging what it claims.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot is said about children having stronger psychic ability because they’re so unjaded and innocent. This excruciating view of children is generally expounded by people who think like children and perhaps can be forgiven.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(speaking in a solemn tone to a group of young school children) Now you know that your headmistress, Miss Davis, was going to come in here and just check that you were all going to be well behaved. She can’t do that because, as many of you probably know, she can’t be here today, er, because her pants fell down earlier on. It’s not funny. If any of you see her, don’t make a fuss because it’s a bit embarrassing for her, OK? Alright? It’s not funny.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some people believe that a person’s spirit is captured when they are photographed. I invite those of you who don’t believe that to take a photograph of someone you love a stab it repeatedly with a pair of scissors. Maybe they do capture something of the soul.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How many powerful memories are triggered by smell and taste? Your mother’s old perfume, the smell your father’s breath, the taste of the soap they’d make you eat.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One area which shows how unknowingly predictable we are, is the way we decorate our houses. We all feel we make unique and distinct choices, yet we all conform to a cultural standard.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So, what I do is a mixture of genuine psychological technique as well as all the chicanery and showmanship of the magician but it was enormously tempting to see what a clinical psychologist would make of it.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember how you used to try and make kids turn round at school by staring at the back of their heads? And how they used to go home early crying with blood coming out of their ears?”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many things we misread as meaningful are quite ordinary coincidences. For example, it’s not unlikely that occasionally someone will phone you after you’ve been thinking about them. But we give these things value to make sense of our lives.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(speaking of Blackpool) Ah, I remember I used to come here as a child and it’s still really... shit, isn’t it, let’s be honest.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the comforting and lovely Leadenhall Market, an accommodating inter-mammary cleft in the bosom of old Londinium.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Victorian criminology there was an enthusiasm for spotting criminal tendencies in a person’s features.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Language is a gift that puts lyrics to the music of our lives. Without spoken language we wouldn’t be able to say, ‘I love you’. We’d have to say ‘uuurrrgghh’ or hold up a sign. And whether it’s one person’s gentle English or another’s muddy, arrogant French, it’s our language that makes us unapproachable and difficult to understand.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Sun has come to represent enlightenment and salvation across many cultures. I think that if we remove such comforting concepts we are required to do more soul searching but eventually our eyes become accustomed to the dark and our lives become richer.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you think astrologists, palm readers and the like can really tell everything about you? That your personality can be read from your birth date, your hand or from sensing vibrations? Very possible.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the nineteenth century, so-called ‘psychics’ were often tested by having to guess the details on a postcard sealed in an envelope. Often they did surprisingly well so i thought it would be worth presenting some modern day non-psychics with the same challenge.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hated sports at school and hated my sports teachers. Still do in fact - especially Mr Broomfield. He remains an insult to retarded, overbearing megalomaniacs to this day.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Well, it took me over two hours to find Frencesco’s keys which was disappointing but I did go to Venice for free and I didn’t fall into the canal on the way home like a twat.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our tendency to think that we're not predictable is probably one of our more predictable traits.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vienna. It means nothing to me but to Orson Welles, it was the setting for one of his finest performances - and a place to get huge plates of cheap rich food. I followed the footsteps of my hero, which are still visible in the concrete, to the world famous Ferris wheel.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Canterbury Cathedral: The first ever pocket watch was found in the walls of its cloister many hundreds of years ago. I decided to come, in the rain, to play with the locals and, if time permitted, attend the evening service.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Séances lost their popularity with the invention of infrared photography when it became possible to see what mediums were doing in the dark. Nowadays, spiritualists’ fakery is more ambiguous and subtle.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here's a place you'll never go: Monte Carlo on the French Riviera. As a massive celebrity, it's like a second home for me. If I just want to piss off somewhere for six months to a year to get away from tramps and fans I tend to come here in one of my big fucking expensive yachts.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(Whilst having his makeup done) This is the makeup process. I’ve been here since half past five this morning. So would you say you’re bringing out a beauty that’s already there? How does it work? How do we hide the bald patch?”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(When asked about the method for a trick where a member of the public answers a public pay-phone only to immediately slump to the floor as if asleep) I was saying ‘there’s fifty quid under the phone book. Just pretend. You’re on TV’.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even though it’s dark sometimes or it’s scary for the people involved, ultimately I always make sure they’re exhilarated by it. It’s genuinely a real pleasure to take people to that place.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This week, we’re in Whitby on the North-east coast where my great-uncle, Count Dracula, first touched British soil in the shape of a big dog.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We form many of our political opinions through reading papers and unconsciously absorbing the rhetoric of the journalists. Later, we spout the same opinions as our own. This parallels the way we respond to any authority and it’s something politicians understand well.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are people who have the ability to wake up a minute or even seconds before their alarm goes off or to know what time they’ve woken up without even looking at a clock. Now, thank God, I don’t have to get up in the mornings but the potential of the body to keep such accurate time is remarkable.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In each episode of this series I will offer an applicant a blind choice of either a pleasant experience, a ‘treat’, or a darker ‘trick’. They won’t know which one they’ve chosen and they may not know how or when it will happen to them.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Russian Roulette should not, under any circumstances, be copied. It is extremely dangerous.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The way that we draw faces says so much about the way that we see ourselves and the way that we see each other.”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some people might think I could play Russian Roulette safely with a blank bullet. Our armourer took us outside to demonstrate the damage a blank causes at close range. (The demonstration showed the significant damage caused by firing a blank at a plastic bottle)”
Derren Brown (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source