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" Fame was never something I was seeking in my artistic journey. It's to be used as a tool for an artist to break open doors and keep creating. That's how I enjoyed fame in '74; it was not just for the emptiness of being famous. "

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" 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

Creativity

School

Parents

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

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

" I love to remember the World Trade Centre walk, but it should not define me. "

" I, like everybody else, have a certain fear of heights, and I have to be very careful when I am in the clouds, but it is also what I love; it is my domain, so when you love something, you don't have fear. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

Philippe Petit

Wood

Balance

" 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. "

" 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. "

" When you are a young person, the world is yours. You can do the impossible. "

" 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 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. "

Philippe Petit

Artist

Art

" 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. "

Philippe Petit

Honorable

Parents

" An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph. "

" 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. "

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

" I needed more knowledge in rigging and knotting. I started collecting books on knots and really learning more and more. That's how it started. And also in magic, of course. With a piece of rope, you can do magic. "

" If you see how carefully I prepare for any kind of walk, legal or illegal, small or big, you will see that, actually, I narrow the unknown to virtually nothing. And that's when I am ready to walk on the wire. "

" It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it. "

" I am the poet of the high wire - I never do stunts; I do theatrical performances. "

" Truly, from a very early age, I started distancing myself from other kids, not out of willingness, but just out of the nature of my energy. I liked to do things solely, and I already had a taste of the quest for perfection, which is unusual in a little kid. "

" Usually, when I walk on a wire, I inspect the anchor point on both sides before crossing. "

" I started putting a wire up in secret and performing without permission. Notre Dame, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the World Trade Center. And I developed a certitude, a faith that convinced me that I will get safely to the other side. If not, I will never do that first step. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "