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Houdini Quotes

Browse 27 quotes about Houdini.

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Houdini Quotes

“To me, Clark Kent in a phone booth and Houdini in a packing crate, they were one and the same thing," he would learnedly expound at WonderCon or Angoulême or to the editor of The Comics Journal . "You weren't the same person when you came out as when you went in.”

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Book:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel
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“In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini.”

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Book:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel
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“My father's book is about is about a number of things, but about Houdini's rage to not be a failure like his father, and it's also about converting X-rated material, namely bondage, into family friendly safe fare, which is what he did. It's also about death and resurrection, and rising to live again another day when everyone thinks you're dead.”

ThinkingBookFatherNumbersMaterialsSafeRageRisingFriendlyResurrectionBondageAnother DayFamily FriendsConvertingHoudiniX Rated
Author:Nicholas Meyer
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“I didn't really know much about the Houdinis when I started. As soon as they sent me the script, I wanted to find out everything I could about Bess. Luckily, I have a really wonderful friend named Michael Mitnick, who's a writer. He was a magician as a child, and that led him to the theater, which led to drama school, and he writes films now. Magic was really his thing, growing up, so he put me in touch with his magic teacher who is a real Houdini expert.”

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Author:Kristen Connolly
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“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.”

ArtInspirationWaterCenturyArt IsRemainsCellsChineseTriumphTorture20th CenturyDrowningDemonstrationIconsHelplessnessPrimalDisorientationHoudiniPrimal Fear
Author:Criss Angel
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“It certainly was an important moment for me, that realization that I was not going to get what I wanted. It was very freeing. I keep using that word "freeing" or "liberating." I feel like Houdini sometimes, like I'm just getting out of one set of shackles after another, hanging upside down inside a burlap bag with handcuffs on. Hopefully one day, I'm going to get out of this tank of water.”

FeelsImportantSometimesMomentsWantedWaterOne DayRealizationHopefullyBagsLiberatingTanksUpside DownShacklesHandcuffsImportant MomentsHoudiniBurlap
Author:Alison Bechdel
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“I jog through the halls and then go upstairs to Jane’s locker and carefully slip the note I wrote last night through the vent: To: The Locker Houdini From: Will Grayson Re: An Expert in the Field of Good Boyfriends? Dear Jane, Just so you know: e. e. cummings cheated on both of his wives. With prostitutes. Yours, Will Grayson”

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Book:Will Grayson, Will Grayson
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“There was one moment, and it happened in school. I had a big final exam - we were supposed to write a 20-page report on this book about Houdini. I probably would have loved reading it, but I didn't, so I just decided to make a little super-8 movie based on it. I tied myself to the railroad tracks and all that. I mean, this is kid stuff, but it impressed the teacher, and I got an A. And that was maybe my first turning point, when I said, 'Yeah, I wouldn't mind being a filmmaker.'”

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Author:Tim Burton
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