Penn Jillette

Penn Jillette is an American illusionist, juggler and comedian known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team known as Penn & Teller, with whom he hosts the television show Penn & Teller: Bullshit! airing on the Showtime network. He also hosted Penn Radio with juggler Michael Goudeau.

Sourced

• I've always wanted to make the world a more rational place. I'm still working on it.
  • "10 Questions: Penn Jillette" (18 June 2003)

• A guy called up, and in his lead, he said, "We've talked before. I used to be with US but now I'm for SELF." And I was like, "I guess we know everything now, don't we?" ... I kind of laughed and I went, "I guess a lot of people are like that." And he paused and went, "Uhhh… what?" And I said, "Oh, nothing."
  • "An Interview with Penn Jillette : The non-silent half of Penn & Teller discusses his career" (13 October 2003)

• 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.
  • WIRED Issue 2.09 (September 1994)

• It's fair to say that the Bible contains equal amounts of fact, history, and pizza.
  • "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?" on Bullshit Season 2, episode 6 (6 May 2004)

• God works in mysterious, inefficient, and breathtakingly cruel ways.
  • "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?" on Bullshit Season 2, episode 6 (6 May 2004); this statement is a rebuke to the famous assertion by William Cowper: "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm."

• Freedom means the right to be stupid.
  • Free FM Radio Show (15 September 2006)

• 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.
  • Glenn Beck program on CNN (2 November 2006)

• My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps without having to smell them.
  • As quoted in "Thoughts On the Business of Life" in Forbes magazine (12 November 2007)

• Every nut who kills people has a Bible lying around. If you're looking for violent rape imagery, the Bible's right there in your hotel room. If you just want to look up ways to screw people up, there it is, and you're justified because God told you to.
  • Bull Sessions with Penn Jillette(15 January 2008)

• That's the beauty of the Web: You can roll around in a stranger's obsession without having to smell his or her house. You can amscray whenever you want without being rude. The site gets its "hit" and you know more about our species' diversity.
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    There Is No God (2005)

    "There Is No God" (text and audio) on This I Believe NPR (21 November 2005)

    
    
    • I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy — you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do.
    
    
    • I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."
      Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.
    
    
    • Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
    
    
    • I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less.
    
    

    Unsourced

    • Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people can see your lips moving.