Philippe Petit Quotes & Sayings

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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

Believe marvels exist around you, inside others, within yourself. Go search for them. Gallop through life and without dismounting your horse manage (like a Cossack!) to pick up bits of otherworldliness lying on the path. Feed your imagination that way. That way, shape your destiny. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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

I've been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

I started very early, from five or six years old, to climb. To climb trees, to climb rocks everywhere I could. At some point, of course, I used a rope. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

My journey has always been the balance between chaos and order. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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

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. — Philippe Petit

If you see how carefully I prepare for any kind of walk, legal or illegal, small or big, you will see that, actually, I narrow the unknown to virtually nothing. And that's when I am ready to walk on the wire. — Philippe Petit

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

I love to remember the World Trade Centre walk, but it should not define me. — Philippe Petit

When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk! — Philippe Petit

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

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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

Obsessed people are not humorless at all. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. — Philippe Petit

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

Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary. — Philippe Petit

It cannot be done all at once. To overpower vertigo - the keeper of the abyss- one must tame it, cautiously. — Philippe Petit

The union of altitude and solitude fills me with an arrogant sense of ownership. — Philippe Petit

I know it's impossible. But I know I'll do it! — Philippe Petit

I am not up there by chance. I am there by choice. And I know the wire. And I know my limits. And I am a madman of details. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

I have a fear of water, believe it or not. To put a wire 12 feet over a swimming pool frightens me. I don't like water. — Philippe Petit

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

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

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

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

If I die, what a beautiful death. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

Would anyone but a crazed bicephalous being, half engineer, half poet, willingly shackle himself to a venture of such magnitude? I am prisoner of my dream. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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

There is no such thing as motivation in my world. I am not motivated to do what I do. As an artist, I am driven, I am compelled, I am thrust forward by a force so rooted inside me, so convincing, that it seems futile to try to explain it. Although it has a name: passion. — Philippe Petit

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

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

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

I have been expelled from five different schools when I was a kid. And I learned basically all what I do by myself. — Philippe Petit

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

It is treacherous on a high wire to change your focus point and suddenly look down. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

I was never part of the sailing circle, but I enjoy when I'm invited to sail. — Philippe Petit

To fight adversity, to improvise, to solve problems, and to save the coup, I had gathered all my senses into unusual configurations, which made me grow wild and enhanced my perceptions. — Philippe Petit

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

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

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

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

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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

My destiny no longer has me conquering the highest toowers in the world, but rather the void they protect.
This cannot be measured. — Philippe Petit

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

Passion is the motto of all my actions. — Philippe Petit

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

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

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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

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

As I'm studying magic, juggling is mentioned repeatedly as a great way to acquire dexterity and coordination. Now, I had long admired how fast and fluidly jugglers make objects fly. So that's it. I'm 14; I'm becoming a juggler. — Philippe Petit

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

If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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

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. — Philippe Petit

I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

Every year, I am conscious of the anniversary of my 1974 World Trade Center walk. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit

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. — Philippe Petit