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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. "

Philippe Petit

Time

Change

I Am

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

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

" I wanted all my life to give my world into other arts - books, plays, movies - but I didn't want to sell out. "

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

" 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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

" There was a time when fire and story would fall asleep in unison. It was dream time. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" I walk on the wire; it's my profession, and there are no two high wire walks alike. "

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

" In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog. "

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

" 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

" Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it. "

" 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

" Obsessed people are not humorless at all. "

Philippe Petit

People

Obsessed

" 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. "

" 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. "

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