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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. "
Philippe Petit
Life
My Life
Death
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" 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
Say
Rules
Fearless
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Lose
Mistake
My Life
" I've been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing. "
Philippe Petit
Street
Been
Walking
" 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
You
High
Normal
" I am a thief of knowledge, and in a survival way, I had to solve all the problems around me. "
Philippe Petit
Survival
Problems
Me
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Red
World
Talking
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Up
Know
I Am
" In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog. "
Philippe Petit
People
Never
My Life
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Life
Mistake
You
" Obsessed people are not humorless at all. "
Philippe Petit
People
Obsessed
" Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers. "
Philippe Petit
Art
Everybody
Said
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Life
Myself
Age
" I found out that total creativity involves a certain intellectual rebellion - not to become a criminal, but somehow. to be totally creating, you have to do things that are a little bit forbidden. You have to feel free, and we know freedom is a hard thing to get. "
Philippe Petit
You
Creativity
Free
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Memorable
Story
Walk
" Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it. "
Philippe Petit
About
Talking
Performance
" 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
Beginning
Bridges
Care
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Will
High
Hope
" I hate all electronic things that are supposed to help the human being. You don't smell, you don't hear, you don't touch anymore. "
Philippe Petit
Hate
You
Smell
" 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
Movies
Life
Arts
" It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it. "
Philippe Petit
Practicing
Lifetime
Easy
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Experience
Fear
Place
" I focus, I invent, I transform, I challenge, I attempt, I observe, I perform. "
Philippe Petit
Transform
Observe
Focus
" I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity. "
Philippe Petit
Week
Sensitivity
School
" I rendezvous with the long wire and perform the 'torero walk', gliding my feet, holding the pole away from my body, head high. "
Philippe Petit
High
Feet
Head
" You see, it's actually very good that a human activity is performed very close to death, because that's where life is. Life is, at its most valuable and most full, very close to the boundary of life. "
Philippe Petit
See
Life
Good
" An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph. "
Philippe Petit
Triumph
Challenge
I Am
" I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. "
Philippe Petit
Sydney
Did
Harbor
" It is treacherous on a high wire to change your focus point and suddenly look down. "
Philippe Petit
Down
Point
Look
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Bag
Loved
Tree
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Learn
Parents
Circus