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" 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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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

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

" Passion is the motto of all my actions. "

" 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 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. "

" 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 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 am fascinated by the engineering. The science of constructing and understanding why it stands. And I am drawn by the madness, the beauty, the theatricality, the poetry and soul of the wire. And you cannot be a wire-walker without mingling those two ways of seeing life. "

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

" If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk. "

" 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 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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Every year, I am conscious of the anniversary of my 1974 World Trade Center walk. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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 was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "