Wisdom in fragments

Art is a vocation for me, not a career, not a job… you wouldn't say to a nun. 'so, how did you get into God?'

British artist known for provocative conceptual and autobiographical works

I'm 65 years old, and one of the things that amazes me is the number of people who work to get to a certain level of success in showbusiness, and then quit to go play golf?! There is nothing else I would want to do in this world.

Magician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo

Even when I was 16, if you had asked me what I wanted most in the world – I would have said, '…to be able to do shows, and have people watch them.' Realistically, for my level of ability, talent and work-ethic, we expected about 200 people a night to come and see us.

Magician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo

When we were first able to make approximately what our fathers made by doing performance, we considered ourselves completely successful and had no ambition beyond that. If we were playing fairs and cruise ships, we were happy.

Magician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo

I'm interested in the 'modern' definition of magic which plays with epistemology, and the determinations we make about what's true, and what is real. The most important decisions you can make center around your perceptions of the world, and what makes you doubt them.

Magician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo

Magic is this incredibly weird bondage and discipline you make where you say to someone, 'do this thing to me that's morally wrong… you have my consent…' – once you give your consent, the morality changes.

Magician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo

Until James DeGale won a World Title, no-one who'd won a gold medal for Britain in the Olympic Games had ever won a professional World Title, which is quite amazing. Sometimes the greatest boxers get overlooked.

Founder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series

There's an old adage that the boxer is the last one to know – it's not true, he's the first one to know, but the last to acknowledge it. You can learn from defeat – it's not the end of the world, but you have to learn from it.

Founder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series

Anyone can have a good trainer; you can learn the moves and get fit. Any boxer or athlete can get super fit – the edge is mental ability – It's having the self-belief. If you're not right in the head? You'll never do it.

Founder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series

To be a great fighter you obviously have to have talent, but what really matters is dedication and discipline. I've seen so many guys with talent where I've thought, 'this guy's going to be a world champion...' but they've not had the dedication. You can't just succeed with talent.

Founder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series

I got into boxing promotion by accident. I went to the meeting, turned around and said, 'I don't need you, we'll promote it...' I don't know why I even said that! The next minute, I was in the promotion business and helping to get this thing together; I got bitten by the bug, and it went from there.

Founder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series

We can take a hell of a lot more stress than we believe we can. We should learn how to fight not flight. And fight doesn't have to be a physical thing – it can be that you feel something's going to be uncomfortable 'okay well let's avoid it'. No, go through with it but go through with it in a progressive manner.

Boxing coach of Conor McGregor at Straight Blast Gym Dublin

It's like playing chess but while getting punched in the face.

Boxing coach of Conor McGregor at Straight Blast Gym Dublin

If you want to grow, you need to go through something uncomfortable and come out the other end. If you want to grow, you have to go forward in progressive steps. It should always be a little bit uncomfortable because otherwise there's no growth.

Boxing coach of Conor McGregor at Straight Blast Gym Dublin

I approached fighting, and each contest, as an experiment. I would develop hypotheses on what strategies and techniques were winning, I would set-up experiments (or go into fights)- try them out- run tests- look at the results and try to be as unemotional as possible.

Boxing coach of Conor McGregor at Straight Blast Gym Dublin

What's the business hip hop of this post pandemic world? Who's going to be the Rapper's Delight of the post pandemic world?

Billionaire Investor, Shark Tank Investor & Dallas Mavericks Owner