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I was about 12 when I heard my first Lenny Bruce record. He was already dead. But it changed my life and really did change the world.

Penn Jillette

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Penn Jillette
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: March 5
Actor
Circus Performer
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Illusionist
Jongleur
Magician
Musician
Novelist
Podcaster
Radio Personality
Greenfield
Massachusetts
Penn Fraser Jillette
Change
Lenny
Firsts
Bruce
First
Record
Really
Records
Life
Already
World
Dead
Changed
Heard

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There is this tremendous amount of arrogance and hubris, where somebody can look at something for five minutes and dismiss it. Whether you talk about gaming or 20th century classical music, you can't do it in five minutes. You can't listen to 'The Rite of Spring' once and understand what Stravinsky was all about.
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The medium is not the message - the message is the message.
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If you spend a lot of time lying to people, you think a lot about what the truth means.
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Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, 'Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not?' But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision.
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The secret truth of 'Celebrity Apprentice' is that it isn't very hard... 'Celebrity Apprentice' is easy like junior high is easy. All the arithmetic, the creative writing and the history are super simple, but like junior high, you do that easy work surrounded by people who are full-tilt, hormone-raging bug nutty.
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If you want to talk about magic, the stuff that blows me away is the stuff that's done close up.
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My whole family is missing that sports gene. I hope I didn't screw that up by marrying a great golfer.
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Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.
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Read everything and be kind.
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Counterintuitive actions prove we can trust real knowledge and do the opposite of what we feel makes sense.
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Direct confrontation, direct conversation is real respect. And it's amazing how many people get that.
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The only place we were really told to tone it down - where other people would use the word censorship, but I wouldn't - was when we did MTV right after the Beavis and Butt-head thing.
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If you can just convince the dope people that the gun people are right and the gun people that the dope people are right, we could actually live in a lot more freedom.
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For better or worse, in the 21st century, reality shows are the variety show.
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Every time something really bad happens, people cry out for safety, and the government answers by taking rights away from good people
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Technology is run by sex, because it's very important to people, both technology and sex.
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I'm a hardcore libertarian - I want everything legal - but I also believe that you have the right to free association.
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One of the strongest feelings you can get in life--one of the most rewarding feelings--is the feeling of an Aha, I finally understand.
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