Quotes from The Prestige

Christopher Priest ·  360 pages

Rating: (14.8K votes)


“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige


“The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you wont find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled.”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige


“An illusion has three stages.

"First there is the setup, in which the nature of what might be attempted at is hinted at, or suggested, or explained. The apparatus is seen. volunteers from the audience sometimes participate in preparation. As the trick is being setup, the magician will make use of every possible use of misdirection.

"The performance is where the magician's lifetime of practice, and his innate skill as a performer, cojoin to produce the magical display.

"The third stage is sometimes called the effect, or the prestige, and this is the product of magic. If a rabbit is pulled from a hat, the rabbit, which apparently did not exist before the trick was performed, can be said to be the prestige of that trick.”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige


“Now you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige


“In the expression of grief lies recovery from grief itself. Nor”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige



“Bet visada atsiranda vienas ar du, kurie išsineša paslaptį ir kamuojasi dėl jos taip niekada ir nepriartėdami prie jos išsiaiškinimo.”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige


“In the expression of grief lies recovery from grief itself.”
― Christopher Priest, quote from The Prestige


About the author

Christopher Priest
Born place: in Cheadle, England, The United Kingdom
Born date July 14, 1943
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It's more than you think it can be," she heard herself say. "It changes everything, and fixes everything that matters. Maybe you're never going to be the same, and maybe part of you is always afraid of what will happen if...but he's always going to be there. All you have to do is reach out, and he's going to be there.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Holiday in Death


“And the air is new. And everything, instant by instant, is as it is, preparing to appear. [...] This is the only way I can live now. To be reborn moment by moment. [...] I die at every instant, and I am reborn, new and without memories: live and whole, no longer inside myself, but in every thing outside.”
― Luigi Pirandello, quote from One, No One and One Hundred Thousand


“Low tide smells mud-black and tangy, but high tide smells clean and salty.”
― Cynthia Lord, quote from Rules


“All pain seemed to come with lots of blood, and lots of mental anguish, too. I already knew about that. Maybe that was the worst kind of pain, because nobody knew about it but you.”
― V.C. Andrews, quote from My Sweet Audrina


“But speaking of Tennyson, have you read Maud?” “Once, long ago.” “It’s got some points about it.” He quoted softly: “‘Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from A Murder Is Announced


Interesting books

Fixing Delilah
(7.5K)
Fixing Delilah
by Sarah Ockler
Drop of Doubt
(7.3K)
Drop of Doubt
by C.L. Stone
Forgiveness and Permission
(7.8K)
Forgiveness and Perm...
by C.L. Stone
Lies
(139)
What's Left of Me
(6.8K)
What's Left of Me
by Amanda Maxlyn
The Two Kings
(2.8K)

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.