QUOTES by Philippe Petit
Find most favourite and famour Authors from A.A Milne to Zoe Kravitz.
Metaphorically speaking, of course, if I put a problem behind my pillow and fall asleep, very often because my brain went to sleep with that idea or the problem alive, very often in the middle of the night I wake up, and I wake up with a solution or with a direction of solution.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I didn't go to school much. I was thrown out of different schools, and my university is the street.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
My first walk illegally at 20 years old was between the towers of Notre Dame.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
It's always easy to describe something complex by applying to it an already known label.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I am not up there by chance. I am there by choice. And I know the wire. And I know my limits. And I am a madman of details.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
On a very long and very high wire, I will not hope to not be blown off by high winds. I will have the certitude that such could not happen.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
As a high wire walker, I do not allow myself to 'leave the wire' during a performance.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
My parents wanted me to have an honorable profession and not to be a jester.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
Of course, the slightest little mistake on the wire will deprive me of my life, so in that sense, yes, it is a dangerous profession. You have to pay attention; if not, you will lose your life.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
It would be very, very dangerous for a wire walker to experience fear while he is balancing on the wire. Fear has its place on earth, before and maybe after a high-wire walk, but not during for me.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I'm a wire-walker, but actually, I'm a moviemaker that hasn't done his first movie.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I would like to continue to tell stories of what I did in a biographical way, so I will continue to write.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
Certainly, in the story of my life, the walk between the Twin Towers was one of the grandest, one of the most memorable, but not solely the grandest and the most memorable.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
Talking about theater, actually, I built a little barn in upstate New York, and I call it 'the smallest theater in the world,' but it has a mini stage and a red velvet curtain.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
If I had been born in the circus, my parents would have pushed me on that little high wire at four years old. That's when the body is most limber to learn those acrobatics.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I was born in a world of opera, theatre, films, poetry, art, and therefore, out of the wire, I made a stage. That's why they call me a high wire artist.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
My time is always divided when I prepare for a wire walk. First I dream, technically and artistically, and then I go to work, and I am the master rigger, climbing trees and ladders and constructing. Only then I change my cap and become the performer.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
When you are a young person, the world is yours. You can do the impossible.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
It's part of my life to feel like a criminal, to have eyes in my back and see if I'm being followed. It's a feeling that comes from street juggling because I have been arrested so many times.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I've been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
Usually, when I walk on a wire, I inspect the anchor point on both sides before crossing.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
Every year, I am conscious of the anniversary of my 1974 World Trade Center walk.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I have been performing in the street for more than 50 years: magic for basically 60 years, and the high wire 45 years. The beauty of it is that it's never the same. It's never easy. And yet, part of my art is to make it look easy.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -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.
Quote by -Philippe Petit
I love or hate things straight away. I like to go directly to action to see the result. I think I must be difficult, but at the same time, it's not for me to say.
Quote by -Philippe Petit