Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" 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. "

Related Quotes:

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

Philippe Petit

Film

Art

Away

" 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. "

" I hate all electronic things that are supposed to help the human being. You don't smell, you don't hear, you don't touch anymore. "

" 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. "

Philippe Petit

Nobody

Grand Canyon

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" Passion is the motto of all my actions. "

" 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. "

" I am the poet of the high wire - I never do stunts; I do theatrical performances. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

" 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

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

Philippe Petit

Survival

Problems

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

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

" 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 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "