The theatre where his play Lazarus is running is no more than a few minutes walk away; Magic Shop, the studio where he recorded albums Blackstar and The Next Day, is even closer, on Crosby Street.
"If we stack it tighter, it takes away the magic".
Selling everything takes away the magic of pop and rock stars".
I don't have one simple take away, one magic idea.
His wife used to be able to rip up a dollar and reassemble it, until she forgot the restoration part and moved away from magic.
"They took away my magic powder, so I thought they were my enemy, but now I realize we were dancing together," he said.
When you see all the moments on one side or the other, or moving, it looks banal, it drains away the magic of the moment".
Gold's underlying theme is to recapture the excitement of the great illusionists, before film and television swept away the magic of live performance.
They toss away the magic kicks in revulsion, stomping them into the dust, and return to the mountains, taking one final look at the city they've left behind.
This is an opera set on an enchanted island, yet the staging, revived by Bernadette Iglich and designed by Joanna Parker, does away with magic in favour of sparing images of decayed opulence.
One of the questions that's bothered me about The Tempest: why would Prospero, having been betrayed by his evil brother once – an evil brother who does not repent, even when he's been forgiven – throw away his magic weapons and then climb onboard a ship with that very same evil brother?
