Criss Angel Quotes

It's so funny looking back, but my so-called overnight success actually took 15 years. I remember when I didn't have any money, and my only car was mom's Hyundai.

Magic speaks to the child in all of us. No matter how sophisticated we become, there's still a part of us who wants to believe in an alternative reality, where we can defy the laws of nature.

Reality is perspective. All you have to do is Believe.

Pain is a beautiful thing. When you feel pain, you know you're alive.

When you think like a child your imagination is free and anything is possible.

To me, it's never about the trick. I don't care about how something works. I care about how people feel when they watch it. You know, that - that connection - that emotional connection is true magic.

I am the Mindfreak, there's no Reality! Just this World of Illusion that keeps on haunting me.

Really believe in yourself, and that no matter what anyone says to you, if you really have a dream and the passion - go for it! If you're willing to go through the rigors to get it, it will happen. It may not happen in your timeframe, but it will happen. I'm living proof of that. I was once on the other end of the spectrum, and now I'm living my dream. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I'm a workaholic. I work and work and work.

When the mind, body, and spirit work together, I believe anything is possible.

I am a street performer as much as I am a stage performer. Yes, I have a television show, but every trick, every 'Mindfreak' you see, I can do live.

I think that the problem is that people fear so many things and they don't live life to its fullest. And for me as an artist, if God should want me to come this Wednesday to the end of my life, so be it.

I'm just a human being that is in touch with myself. And I'm honest with myself. And I really, at the end of the day, don't care what people say. I never cared about what people say.

The American Public is who I'm interested in. Ultimately, if they think I'm good and they think I'm entertaining that's all that matters.

ALWAYS KNOW THAT THERE IS NOTHING BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR DREAM EXCEPT YOU. YOU?RE IN CONTROL OF YOUR DESTINY - BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE!

Life is but a series of memories you make.

No one has the ability, that I'm aware of, to do anything supernatural, psychic, talk to the dead.

Well to be perfectly frank with you I never created art or have done demonstrations for anyone before myself artistically. I always do it to try to push my own envelope to be the best I can be.

Sometimes my art is just an illusion - or is it?

I like to say magic is the world's second oldest profession, a mystical and often awe-inspiring spectacle that, throughout the ages, has blended superstition, trickery and religion.

I'm actually tougher on myself as I get older. It's a vicious cycle. The things that are important in life are the things that you can't buy in life: love, health and happiness. I say that, and I believe that, and I try to live that.

A lot of the demonstrations that I do, when I get inside peoples minds, is understanding human behavior and understanding how people think and getting their patterns down so I know how to create the illusion that I get inside their brain.

I used to think that if I had success I would have freedom. But I have less freedom now than I've ever had. And what gives me satisfaction is not the jewelry and not the cars. What gives me satisfaction is doing things for others, like children.

Pain can be a beautiful thing.

I've never, ever had any therapy. Some might say I need it, but I've never seen a shrink or a psychologist or anything like that.

I would love to be fooled. The innocence of child for the first time, seeing something and being in wonder is something that I long for because I'm tainted.

I have my own foundation, which I just started, called Believe Anything Is Possible, which is going to be an organization to help the underprivileged.

I worked 18 years to become an overnight success. Now MagicPlace.com will short circuit that process for people.

And you know, I'm so used to going 100 miles an hour in every direction and sleeping you know, two, three hours a night, and that's the way I live.

You can just go to a magic shop or magic builder and buy what most magicians do, but that's not what I'm about. With 'Mindfreak' on television and 'Believe' live, I want to bring things that people have never seen before. That process is very difficult. It's very challenging, and you never know how long it's going to take - months or years.

I came up with the term 'mindfreak' because I didn't like the word 'magician.' I felt like I wanted to coin a term that would be basically the reaction to my art. It would be a mindfreak and so that's why I came up with that. But, many people say I'm really a student of humanity and psychology.

Indeed, most magicians catch the bug as kids. My first audience was my family in Long Island. My first 'assistant' was my mother, whom I levitated on a broom in our living room.

I have mentally overcome situations most of you would be terrified to ever attempt: heights, fire, needles, spiders, snakes, angry monkeys, being shot, being hit by a car, going blind - you name it, I have been in a situation where I have had to mentally overcome my inherent fears to do my job.

You can't please everyone and trying to do so is the kiss of death.

I had an amazing childhood, lots of love. But my dad worked his tail off, getting up at 4 in the morning and going off at 5, 6 o'clock, yet he always had time to spend with his kids and his wife.

If people are fans of 'Mindfreak,' they are going to be so excited with 'Believe.' They are actually going to see those illusions that people think can only happen with trick photography.

Magic is the oldest part of the show business profession. It can now be used as a forward-thinking tool to build a child's confidence. It has been an amazing part in many entertainers' lives, including Steve Martin and the late Johnny Carson.

I put my life in danger every time I do some of these demonstrations, whether it's in the audience hanging upside down or on the stage. We now have a lot of dangerous stunts where anything can go wrong. In fact, I have fallen two stories and landed on the stage, so I am well aware of the dangers.

I've been a live performer longer than I've been a television performer. For me, live is where it's at.

I have real TV studios. If I have an idea, I can go shoot it. I can experiment. If I choose to air it or not, it's at my discretion. I don't have to do it to somebody else's time frame.

Oprah is signed on to help, and a lot of celebrity friends have agreed to help me raise money for Make-A-Wish. We want to make the world a better place for innocent children. I cried my heart out when my father died from cancer. I wish I was smarter, wiser like a doctor, to save these children from dying.

You can't please everyone, and trying to is the kiss of death. I don't care about Wayne Newton's demographics. When I do, I'll know that it's time to quit.

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

I love the press; I even like the people that don't like me. If it wasn't for those people, no one would know who I was and I wouldn't have a gig.

I am a very emotional person.

Well I think everything up to this point that I've been exposed to in my life has had an influence on me in some way, shape, or form even if I'm not conscious of it. So I definitely think that my studies in wu-shu, kung-fu, karate, kenpo, taikwando, all of that stuff certainly has an affect. I don't think I follow any discipline traditionally.

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.

I want to ride my motorcycle up the side of the Luxor to the light and vanish.

Well I have you know, several CD's out; one of my best friends is Sully Erna from Godsmack - he is Godsmack, and we're going to be working on an album together.

We are thrilled to work with Fun and share the same sentiment that we want do some really exciting and innovative things for the magic community.