The Prestige Quotes (2006)
Robert Angier: I never thought I’d find an answer at the bottom of a pint glass.
Cutter: Hasn’t stopped you looking, has it?
Robert Angier: Would I be the man in the box? Or the man in the prestige?
Cutter: You’re a magician, not a wizard.
Alfred Borden: Are you watching closely?
Cutter: Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it… because you’re not really looking… You don’t really want to know… You want to be fooled.
Robert Angier: Would I be the man in the box? Or the man in the prestige?
Alfred Borden: The truth is a slippery notion in our line of work.
Rupert Angier: He lives his act.
Rupert Angier: [Has Alfred at gunpoint] What knot did you tie?
Alfred Borden: I don’t know.
Rupert Angier: [Shoots him]
Alfred Borden: You went half way around the world… you spent a fortune… you did terrible things… really terrible things Robert, and all for nothing.
Robert Angier: For nothing?
Alfred Borden: Yeah
Robert Angier: You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It’s miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you… then you got to see something really special… you really don’t know?… it was… it was the look on their faces…
Alfred Borden: The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.
Cutter: Obsession is a young man’s game
Alfred Borden: Abracadabra.
Sarah: Alfred I can’t live like this!
Alfred Borden: Well, what do you want from me?
Sarah: I want… I want you to be honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets.
[pause]
Sarah: Do you… do you love me?
Alfred Borden: Not today. No.
[In reference to a bird from a trick]
Alfred Borden: See? He’s fine!
Boy: But where’s his brother?
Rupert Angier: Secrets are my life.
Nikola Tesla: You’re familiar with the phrase “Man’s reach exceeds his grasp”? It’s a lie. Man’s grasp exceeds his nerve. The only limits on scientific progress are those imposed by society. The first time I changed the world, I was hailed as a visionary. The second time I was asked politely to retire. The world only tolerates one change at a time. And so here I am. Enjoying my “retirement”. Nothing is impossible, Mr. Angier, what you want is simply expensive.
Gerald Root: You would drink, too, if you knew the world half as well as I do.
Sullen Warder: The only way Borden’s going to disappear is if I leave him out there with the other inmates.
Merrit: I’ve hired a comedian. You know I hate comedians.
Cutter: You settled on a name yet?
Robert Angier: Yes I have. The Great Danton.
Cutter: Bit old-fashioned isn’t it?
Robert Angier: No. It’s sophisticated.
Hotel Manager: I thought they might work for the government.
Robert Angier: No?
Hotel Manager: Worse. They work for Thomas Edison.
Sullen Warder: How did you get so famous then, eh?
Alfred Borden: Magic.
Robert Angier: If anybody really believed the things I did on stage, they wouldn’t clap, they’d scream.
Ackerman: We’ll have to dress it up a little. Disguise it. Give them enough reason to doubt it.
Alfred Borden: [From Trailer] Does he enjoy taking his bows under the stage?
