-
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.
Philippe Petit -
I started making monkey bridges, like kids do, and climbing and rappelling with ropes. Very naturally, I needed some knots. At the very beginning, I didn't care, I didn't know, and then slowly I started to know, and I started to care. I wanted to know more knots or the right knot for the special action.
Philippe Petit
-
The impossible - we are told - cannot be achieved. To overcome the 'impossible,' we need to use our wits and be fearless. We need to break the rules and to circumvent - some would one say to cheat.
Philippe Petit -
This moment where we think we rest, when the brain is floating, you know, in sleep, is actually a moment where I could be very creative in a very strange, uncontrolled way.
Philippe Petit -
To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.
Philippe Petit -
The wire is a safe place for me to be. The street is not. Life is not. It's a rigorous and simple path. It's straight. You don't have meanders like, you know, on the ground, in life.
Philippe Petit -
I was not born into the world of the stuntman and the daredevil; I was born into the world of theater and writing and sculpting and classical music.
Philippe Petit -
Notre Dame and Sydney - that was nothing. Notre Dame doesn't have a police station; it is not 1,000 or so feet high. It was a public structure, very easy to access. And Sydney Harbour Bridge was half-and-half: a bridge, in the middle of the night. The World Trade Center was the end of the world. Electronic devices, police dogs.
Philippe Petit
-
It is very normal for people on the ground to look at somebody apparently walking in midair and thinking first that person is crazy and thinking secondly that person risks his or her life.
Philippe Petit -
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.
Philippe Petit -
Art is maybe a subversive activity. There is a certain rebellion when you are an artist at heart, even if only in the art of living.
Philippe Petit -
As I'm studying magic, juggling is mentioned repeatedly as a great way to acquire dexterity and coordination. Now, I had long admired how fast and fluidly jugglers make objects fly. So that's it. I'm 14; I'm becoming a juggler.
Philippe Petit -
As a high wire walker, I do not allow myself to 'leave the wire' during a performance.
Philippe Petit -
What I think tailors the creativity of most people are the rules that we learn from the age we are very small - in school, our parents.
Philippe Petit
-
It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it.
Philippe Petit -
If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk.
Philippe Petit -
I have a fear of water, believe it or not. To put a wire 12 feet over a swimming pool frightens me. I don't like water.
Philippe Petit -
Usually, when I walk on a wire, I inspect the anchor point on both sides before crossing.
Philippe Petit -
I wanted all my life to give my world into other arts - books, plays, movies - but I didn't want to sell out.
Philippe Petit -
When art in general, and film in particular, succeeds is when it pulls you away onto a voyage. Then it's a good film.
Philippe Petit
-
My parents wanted me to have an honorable profession and not to be a jester.
Philippe Petit -
I keep saying I am an auto-didact, but I have a lot of outside influences. One I could cite is juggler Francis Brunn, who was the first man to throw ten rings in the air; he was really an amazing juggler who showed onstage the quest for perfection.
Philippe Petit -
Every year, I am conscious of the anniversary of my 1974 World Trade Center walk.
Philippe Petit -
I will never fall prey to celebrity because I am too busy. I have other things to do than look at myself in the mirror.
Philippe Petit