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" 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. "

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" Many people use the words 'death defying' or 'death wishing' when they talk about wire-walking. Many people have asked me: 'So do you have a death wish?' After doing a beautiful walk, I feel like punching them in the nose. It's indecent. I have a life wish. "

Philippe Petit

Death

Life

" 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 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. "

" How could I share with you how I felt when two towers that I loved, two pieces of steel and glass and concrete fell down, when actually they took with them thousands of human lives? That is the actual tragedy. But those towers were almost human for me. I was in love with them, and that's why I married them with a tight rope. "

Philippe Petit

You

Tragedy

" 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. "

" 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

" 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 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 journey has always been the balance between chaos and order. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

Philippe Petit

Action

Think

" 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. "

" There is a child inside me that wants to come out and do something to surprise all the adults. "

" 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. "

" For years, I have been working on crossing the Grand Canyon. Actually, there is nobody who says 'no,' but since this is a project that comes from me and not a commission, I have to find the money, plan the logistics, etcetera. "

Philippe Petit

Nobody

Grand Canyon

" I focus, I invent, I transform, I challenge, I attempt, I observe, I perform. "

" 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. "

" Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary. "

" I've frowned at the idea of breaking records, the first one to do something, or do it longer, higher, more difficult. "

Philippe Petit

First

Higher

" My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker. "

Philippe Petit

Intelligent

Same

" I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. "

" It is treacherous on a high wire to change your focus point and suddenly look down. "

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

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

" Death frames the high wire. But I don't see myself as taking risks. I do all of the preparations that a non-death seeker would do. "

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

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

Philippe Petit

Honorable

Parents

" Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers. "