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.

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.

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.

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.

I am a wire-walker. I can walk any time, anywhere - I'm indestructible.

Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it.

In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog.

Obsessed people are not humorless at all.

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.

When art in general, and film in particular, succeeds is when it pulls you away onto a voyage. Then it's a good film.

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.

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.

I would like to continue to tell stories of what I did in a biographical way, so I will continue to write.

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.

I'm a wire-walker, but actually, I'm a moviemaker that hasn't done his first movie.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My parents wanted me to have an honorable profession and not to be a jester.

As a high wire walker, I do not allow myself to 'leave the wire' during a performance.

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.

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.

It's always easy to describe something complex by applying to it an already known label.

My first walk illegally at 20 years old was between the towers of Notre Dame.

I wanted all my life to give my world into other arts - books, plays, movies - but I didn't want to sell out.

I didn't go to school much. I was thrown out of different schools, and my university is the street.

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.

Let's be real: dads get a bad rap in the media. We're talking Vanilla Ice's 'Ninja Rap' bad. More often than not, they're either pop lockin' Soul Train-style after learning they aren't the father, or they're selfish man-children who have more toys than brain cells.

Sometimes it's good to say no. Sometimes it's good to not act impulsively.

I think what's good is that men are now realizing that life is not a buffet where you just get to pick and choose whatever you want.

Like lots of people, I really love Roxane Gay.

If the guy does not treat you with love and respect, does not cease-and-desist with all the game playing, is not willing to share his world with you, then he is bad for you.

Let's stop acting like a man who is clear about his intentions, is open to love, and has a good head on his shoulders is 'boring,' 'lame,' and 'not passionate like the edgy guy.'

I have watched every single season of 'American Idol' since the beginning, when Ryan Seacrest co-hosted with Brian Dunkleman. Brian who? Exactly.

I'm a very business-minded person.

Sometimes in stand-up, you want that late-night set where you get that five minutes, then you want a half-hour special, and then the crown, if you will, is an HBO special.

I think anytime you work on something, even if you feel really good about it, you're never really sure. Once it's in the public space, it's out of my hands.

I love doing standup, but I love watching it more. Watching people like Michelle Buteau or Baron Vaughn get up and do their thing - that is what comedy can be like.

Typically, in New York, there are so many comics on a single lineup that you can only do eight minutes.

I've experienced harassment. I've had male comedians be very inappropriate.

I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. I was the only black girl in my grade. And I was just, like, really dorky. Like, I wasn't cool.

Being in a male-dominated industry, you can feel like a little excluded. That was making me feel like maybe I'm not funny. I was really seriously considering, like, quitting standup.

I will allow myself to sleep in until 9 A.M. on the weekends.

I'm not a caffeine person.

I like the gym the best when it's mostly empty.

I try to read 20 books a year.

I started watching 'Daria' when I was in college because I didn't have cable growing up. It's such a smart show with a different type of female character.

I think that comfort is underrated in a lot of ways.

I want to have an empire. I like being in front of the camera, performing - but I would like to get to a place where I'm also executive producing and bringing other people along. People of all different walks of life, highlighting their voices.