Philippe Petit Quotes
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On one day of the week, I relax - which is not true, I work furiously on other things. 'Relax' is not a word to me.
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For me, since I have a life wish, not a death wish, for me, I was not gambling my life. I was doing something much more beautiful. I was carrying my life across.
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I focus, I invent, I transform, I challenge, I attempt, I observe, I perform.
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I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire.
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Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it.
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If I have to make a self-portrait, I would put poetry and rebellion on the list. To be able to walk on a wire, to be able to juggle six hoops, you need focus, another word for tenacity, which is passion.
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Death frames the high wire. But I don't see myself as taking risks. I do all of the preparations that a non-death seeker would do.
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I am a wire-walker. I can walk any time, anywhere - I'm indestructible.
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It's very normal - when you're not used to the world of the high wire, it's very normal to be simply terrified. The reason I'm not is because I've done it for so many years.
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If I am practicing on the wire, and you pushed me, I would not move, and if you take a piece of wood and beat me up on the shoulder and the head, I would not move. You would not put me out of balance. You would not be able to. I am solid as granite when I am on the tight rope, and I should be.
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There was a time when fire and story would fall asleep in unison. It was dream time.
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Right after my Twin Towers walk, I was approached by hundreds of people, and I said no to all the offers. I could have become a millionaire overnight, obviously, but I said no, and I continue to be uninterested.
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I am fascinated by the engineering. The science of constructing and understanding why it stands. And I am drawn by the madness, the beauty, the theatricality, the poetry and soul of the wire. And you cannot be a wire-walker without mingling those two ways of seeing life.
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I would not describe my personality. And I think when you describe people, you are making a mistake. That's not how they are; that's how you perceive them at that moment. It's limiting in front of something that is magnificent and unlimited: life.
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On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied.
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I rendezvous with the long wire and perform the 'torero walk', gliding my feet, holding the pole away from my body, head high.
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Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers.
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When I was learning by myself, despite my parents, despite my teachers, despite society, when I was fighting for building my life as a young wire walker at age 16, I didn't have feelings, I had certainties.
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I started very early, from five or six years old, to climb. To climb trees, to climb rocks everywhere I could. At some point, of course, I used a rope.
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I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.
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In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog.
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If a leaf fell from a tree, I'd stop juggling and play with the leaf. I went to my prop bag and got a little bandage and stuck the leaf back on the tree. People loved it.
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I walk on the wire; it's my profession, and there are no two high wire walks alike.
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When I was six years old, I fell in love with magic. For Christmas, I got a magic box and a very old book on card manipulation. Somehow, I was more interested in pure manipulation than in all the silly little tricks in the box.