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" 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
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" My journey has always been the balance between chaos and order. "
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" Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it. "
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" 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. "
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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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" 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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" 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. "
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" My parents wanted me to have an honorable profession and not to be a jester. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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" Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary. "
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Faith
Dictionary
Doubt
" 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. "
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" 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. "
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Life
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" 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. "
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" I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. "
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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. "
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" 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. "
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" 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. "
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End
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" I've frowned at the idea of breaking records, the first one to do something, or do it longer, higher, more difficult. "
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" If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk. "
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" An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph. "
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" 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. "
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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. "
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" I love to remember the World Trade Centre walk, but it should not define me. "
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