"My whole life has been a struggle against the impossible."

"I have been buried alive and lived to tell about it—but just barely."

"Sir Arthur, I have devoted a lot of time and thought to this illusion ... I won't tell you how it was done, but I can assure you it was pure trickery. I did it by perfectly normal means. I devised it …"

"I must fling myself down and writhe; I must strive with every piece of force I possess; I bruise and batter myself against the floor, the walls; I strain and sob and exhaust myself, and begin again, a…"

"The true secret of magic is illusion, not delusion."