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 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
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
There is a child inside me that wants to come out and do something to surprise all the adults. – 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
Right after my Twin Towers walk, I was approached by hundreds of people, and I said no to all the offers. I could have become a millionaire overnight, obviously, but I said no, and I continue to be uninterested. – Philippe Petit
I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts – magic, juggling, and the high wire. – Philippe Petit
I’ve been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing. – Philippe Petit
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
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
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
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
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
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 have been expelled from five different schools when I was a kid. And I learned basically all what I do by myself. – 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
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
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
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
On the high wire, within months, I’m able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied. – Philippe Petit
Usually, when I walk on a wire, I inspect the anchor point on both sides before crossing. – 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
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. – 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