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" My parents wanted me to have an honorable profession and not to be a jester. "
Philippe Petit
Me
Honorable
Parents
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" 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
Me
Think
" Passion is the motto of all my actions. "
Philippe Petit
Motto
Actions
Passion
" I'm a wire-walker, but actually, I'm a moviemaker that hasn't done his first movie. "
Philippe Petit
His
Actually
Done
" Metaphorically speaking, of course, if I put a problem behind my pillow and fall asleep, very often because my brain went to sleep with that idea or the problem alive, very often in the middle of the night I wake up, and I wake up with a solution or with a direction of solution. "
Philippe Petit
Brain
Night
Sleep
" The wire is a safe place for me to be. The street is not. Life is not. It's a rigorous and simple path. It's straight. You don't have meanders like, you know, on the ground, in life. "
Philippe Petit
Simple
Place
Know
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
End
World
Police
" 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
" When a loved one disappears, you continue to live with the accompaniment of that person. One has to find a balance between joy and sorrow. "
Philippe Petit
Find
You
Loved
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Knowledge
Magic
Rope
" 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
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
See
Risks
Myself
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Week
Work
Day
" To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules. "
Philippe Petit
Forget
Rebel
Rules
" 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
Me
Death
Life
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Perfection
Nature
Myself
" I love to remember the World Trade Centre walk, but it should not define me. "
Philippe Petit
World
Trade
Remember
" 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
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Risks
Thinking
People
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Artist
Living
Only
" 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
" I walk on the wire; it's my profession, and there are no two high wire walks alike. "
Philippe Petit
Wire
Alike
High
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Saying
Perfection
Man
" 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
" My first walk illegally at 20 years old was between the towers of Notre Dame. "
Philippe Petit
Notre Dame
First
Old
" It's always easy to describe something complex by applying to it an already known label. "
Philippe Petit
Something
Complex
Easy
" 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. "
Philippe Petit
Life
I Am
Science