Derren Brown: Trending quotes (page 6)

“Every day when you leave your home you give away more than you could ever imagine about who you are and what you do.”

Derren Brown

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Mind Control (1999–2000) or Inside Your Mind on DVD

Home , Imagination

“Now for Heaven’s sake go to bed. Don’t worry about how it was done just go straight to bed. Leave the washing-up and get into bed fully clothed. If any of you want to know how any of it was done, please feel free to write in to me at my home address which will come up on the screen in a moment and I will give you a full and honest explanation of anything you may ask.”

Derren Brown

Other TV and web appearances, E4 Mind Control Night

Feeling , Home , Clothes

“I had to get up at five in the morning to push that man around the market and the only reason why I do this job, my only motivation, is that I don't have to get up early - and I didn't even get a free apple. Bastards.”

Derren Brown

Other TV and web appearances, E4 Mind Control Night

Motivation

“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

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

Hate , School , Sport , Teachers

“I remember reading about a story about a guy – and this was in England, and no more than a couple of years ago. He’d gone to see a psychic, and was told there was a curse on his family, and in order to release the curse, he had to bring with him the following week £5,000 and burn it… if he didn’t do that, either he or his son would die. The scam is quite a common one – the money is put in an envelope, and apparently burnt, but of course the ‘psychic’ secretly switches the envelope and burns an envelope full of newspaper. What happened was the guy went away, and he knew he couldn’t raise £5000, but didn’t want his son to die; so he killed himself.”

Derren Brown

TV recordings of stage shows, Something Wicked This Way Comes (2006), Something Wicked This Way Comes tour brochure

Money , Family , Guy , Reading

“I don’t believe in spiritualism. Personally, I find it quite ugly.”

Derren Brown

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Derren Brown: Séance (2004)

Personality

“Science is unusual in that it is cumulative. It is a system built over time, wherein useful information is retained and ideas that simply don't stand up are discarded, based on the confirmation of knowledge through testing.”

Derren Brown

Books, Tricks of the Mind (2006)

Idea , Knowledge , Science , Time

“I am embarrassingly incompetent at football or any kind of team sport. I’m so bad it would anger you.”

Derren Brown

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

Sport , Football , Anger

“(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

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Mind Control (1999–2000) or Inside Your Mind on DVD

Question

“The most cursory look at cold-reading and suggestion tells us that Tarot cards are not evil; psychics do not ‘usher in’ the Devil or his minions; and even the creepy old Ouija board can be shown to operate via quite everyday, natural, physical forces.”

Derren Brown

Books, Confessions of a Conjuror (2010)

Nature , Evil , Reading

“Few things make me more livid than insulting bad theatre of any sort. Conversely, perfectly realised and exquisitely elegant performance can move me deeply and reduce me to sobbing like a big girl.”

Derren Brown

Books, Absolute Magic - A Model for Powerful Close-Up Performance (2003) second edition

Girl

“If you have never been to a live show of mine, then expect almost a full hour of great songs interspersed with hilarious anecdotes about my career, and lengthy clips from my embarrassingly successful channel 4 television shows.”

Derren Brown

TV recordings of stage shows, Derren Brown – Enigma (2011), Derren Brown – Enigma tour brochure

Success

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

Derren Brown

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Mind Control (1999–2000) or Inside Your Mind on DVD

Memory , Country

“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

Books, Confessions of a Conjuror (2010)

People , Fools , Understanding

“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

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live (2003)

Law , Game

“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

Books, Tricks of the Mind (2006)

People , Books , Parting

“There is a common response from people when they hear that in the absence of evidence to convince me otherwise I don’t have any particular belief in ghosts, psychic powers or an afterlife. It normally runs something along the lines of ‘So you think we just live, die and that’s it? Come on…’ There’s a clear implication there that this earthly life – the wonder of being human – is somehow worthless. That it’s cheap and disappointing enough to warrant that ‘just’ and the accompanying incredulous tone, which are usually reserved for sentences like ‘After all that it was just a little spider? Come on…’ I live, I am sure, in a fairly narrow band of life, and make an embarrassingly pitiful attempt to explore the world I find myself upon. I ache with guilt and conflict when I hear of people living as adventurers, abandoning mainstream lives and living each day with abandon. But I really hope I have a brighter vision for this life and a greater curiosity for its richness than one who can say, and mean, ‘You think we just live, die and that’s it?”

Derren Brown

Books, Confessions of a Conjuror (2010)

Life , People , World , Hope

“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

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

“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

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

“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

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

Dreams , Idea