Adam Conover Quotes

Surprise is important. I think that's the essence of entertainment, really.

Funny how it kept hitting me, like each new thing was a surprise. When was I going to stop being surprised?

No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by translation into words.

I want people to be blown away when I do what they don't expect.

I don't want to walk in the middle. I want people to read what I write and feel strongly about it. If, at some point, whatever I am doing is failing to elicit a response, whether it's very positive or very negative, then I am going to stop doing it.

Wonder is involuntary praise.

All audiences should be slightly off balance.

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

People do not come to a Penn & Teller show to see a magic show. They just don't. They come to see weird stuff that they can see no place else, that will make them laugh and make the little hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.

Too many ads that try not to go over the reader's head end up beneath his notice.

I just feel like content is content; people want to see it resonate.

What makes things memorable is that they are meaningful, significant, colorful.

I find life so shocking in general. Everything about it surprises me.

The essence of comedy, drama, and horror is surprise. I have an uncanny ability to surprise people because they look at my face, and they don't know where I'm going.

The goal is to blow the audience's mind.

It was Freddie who instilled in us the belief that we had to make people gasp every time.

The fact is I get shocked every time I meet Salman. I don't know why.

I think it is OK to surprise people.

I want people to be surprised.

I can't believe where life has taken me.

If you are seeing something for the first time, one of your first reactions should be fascination.

Jo began to dance a jig,...Amy nearly fell out of the window in her surprise, and Meg exclaimed, with uplifted hands, 'Well I do believe the world is coming to an end!

Young children have no sense of wonder. They bewilder well, but few things surprise them. All of it is new to young children, after all, and equally gratuitous.

"Oh!" said my aunt, "I was not aware at first to whom I had the pleasure of objecting."

It is not easy to convey a sense of wonder, let alone resurrection wonder, to another. It’s the very nature of wonder to catch us off guard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder can’t be packaged, and it can’t be worked up. It requires some sense of being there and some sense of engagement.