Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by Philippe Petit - Page 2

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.

Certainly, in the story of my life, the walk between the Twin Towers was one of the grandest, one of the most memorable, but not solely the grandest and the most memorable.

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.

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.

I've frowned at the idea of breaking records, the first one to do something, or do it longer, higher, more difficult.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

My parents wanted me to have an honorable profession and not to be a jester.

I'm a wire-walker, but actually, I'm a moviemaker that hasn't done his first movie.

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

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.

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

When you are a young person, the world is yours. You can do the impossible.

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

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.

I rendezvous with the long wire and perform the 'torero walk', gliding my feet, holding the pole away from my body, head high.

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

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.

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.

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

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

I would like to continue to tell stories of what I did in a biographical way, so I will continue to write.

It's always easy to describe something complex by applying to it an already known label.

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

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.

I am a wire-walker. I can walk any time, anywhere - I'm indestructible.

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

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.

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.

Obsessed people are not humorless at all.

I was not born into the world of the stuntman and the daredevil; I was born into the world of theater and writing and sculpting and classical music.

I am very attracted by the mysterious landscape of Easter Island. Not only because it is a piece of land that is further away from another, but also because of the beautiful statues of Moai that are there. To do a beautiful walk there, I would have to involve the Moai, and the Rapa Nui people who live on the island.

Improvisation is empowering because it welcomes the unknown. And since what's impossible is always unknown, it allows me to believe I can cheat the impossible.

If I look at the performance of another friend Sting, whenever I hear him take over a stage and share his art with millions, it's very inspiring to me. So I have a lot in my life, a lot of friends who inspire me and I'm sure it goes the other way around, or so that I inspire them.

It's impossible, that's for sure. So let's start working.

You must not fall. / When you lose your balance, resist for a long time before turning yourself toward the earth. Then jump. / You must not force yourself to stay steady. You must move forward.

The essential thing is to etch movements in the sky, movements so still they leave no trace. The essential thing is simplicity. / That is why the long path to perfection is horizontal.

Life should be lived on the edge of life.

If I die, what a beautiful death.

Why does almost every ad agency in the world set the time on a watch at 10:10 before photographing it?

I usually practice on a small, low wire, that features the predominant wind. I study the meteorology of the place at the time that I am supposed to do my walk, and then I find the predominant direction and velocity of the wind and I train to fight that wind.

When I perform outside, the major problem that could arise is strong wind.I spend months preparing for the types of wind that occur in different locations.

You can always find a way to do something. Now, of course, when I do the action, it's an action that inspires people, it's a gift to people, it's not the other way around, I do not take something, I do not hurt people. Yes, I think today would be more than impossible and yet part of me would think that I continue to think that nothing is impossible.

Whenever other worlds invite us, whenever we are balancing on the boundaries of our limited human condition, that’s where life starts, that’s where you start feeling yourself living.

On one side, the mass of a mountain. A life I know. On the other, the universe of the clouds, so full of unknown that it seems empty to us. Too much space.

I have walked many times around the world and each time it's different from the last one. It feels a little bit like I am a theatrical director, creating a theatre in space. It's really a theater in the sky. But of course the World Trade Center is certainly the most well-known of my productions.

Wirewalker, trust your feet! Let them lead you; they know the way.

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.

Passion is the model of all my actions.

I know it's impossible. But I know I'll do it!

Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge - and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope.

The practical answer is, no it would be totally impossible for young or foreign people to get access to roof of a building that stands in the heart of a giant city and to put a cable across.

I don't like to risk my life, so I prepare sometimes for months or sometimes for years. But sometimes after a walk, I look what I have done, and I have a little bit of fear coming to me, just looking at pictures.

For me, when I am on the wire, I do not have a problem of eliminating or blocking fear. I do not really feel fear, although it is a fearful activity to walk in thin air, as I do without any safety device, but I am not fearful.

I don't have a career, I have a life. Don't think of a career, think about your passion and look for inspiration.

I am very sensitive to all form of music, painting, sculpting, dancing, and I love cinema also. For example if I look at the work of the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who happens to be a friend of mine, everything he does is inspiring to me.

Limits exist only in the souls of those who do not dream.