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" 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. "

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" 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. "

Philippe Petit

World

Step

Never

" I've been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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 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. "

" 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

Know

I Am

" I rendezvous with the long wire and perform the 'torero walk', gliding my feet, holding the pole away from my body, head high. "

" 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. "

" 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

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

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

" 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. "

" As I'm studying magic, juggling is mentioned repeatedly as a great way to acquire dexterity and coordination. Now, I had long admired how fast and fluidly jugglers make objects fly. So that's it. I'm 14; I'm becoming a juggler. "

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

" On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied. "

" I have been expelled from five different schools when I was a kid. And I learned basically all what I do by myself. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I am a thief of knowledge, and in a survival way, I had to solve all the problems around me. "

Philippe Petit

Survival

Problems

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" On one day of the week, I relax - which is not true, I work furiously on other things. 'Relax' is not a word to me. "