
“The trick is that you have to stay naked. You must be naked.”
Discussing the secret to a successful relationship to Ryan Seacrest at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
Trip of a Lifetime (1999)
Context: What I always wanted to be was a magician... My real upbringing when I was a teenager was doing magic shows, all over the state, with my father and brothers. Doing magic, you not only have to be able to do a trick, you have to have a little story line to go with it. And writing is essentially a trick.
“The trick is that you have to stay naked. You must be naked.”
Discussing the secret to a successful relationship to Ryan Seacrest at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
Letter to Frances Turnbull (9 November 1938), in A Life in Letters (1994), p. 368
Quoted, Letters
“There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.”
As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 524
As quoted in ...
“You can play jacks, and girls do that with a soft ball and do tricks with it.”
From police transcripts of incoherent deathbed confession
“I'm still trying to perform those tricks. Now I do it with writing.”
Playboy interview (1996)
Context: I had decided to be a magician well before I decided to be a writer. I was the little boy who would get up on-stage and do magic wearing a fake mustache, which would fall off during the performance. I'm still trying to perform those tricks. Now I do it with writing.
“You have to develop a style that suits you and pursue it, not just develop a bag of tricks.”
As quoted in "Innocent Revisited" in TIME magazine (29 June 1970)
Context: I've always been skeptical of people who say they lose themselves in a part. Someone once came up to Spencer Tracy and asked, "Aren't you tired of always playing Tracy?" Tracy replied, "What am I supposed to do, play Bogart?" You have to develop a style that suits you and pursue it, not just develop a bag of tricks.
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Ki Sayings (2003)
Context: Until you can clearly make up your mind, you are better off not doing something. Make a habit of being decisive in your daily affairs. Some people can be heard to say, "what will I do if I get killed?!" If you die, there is nothing you can do. Whatever you have to do, do it now, while you are still living. You must practice to be able to return to essential principles at any moment.