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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
When a loved one disappears, you continue to live with the accompaniment of that person. One has to find a balance between joy and sorrow. – 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
There was a time when fire and story would fall asleep in unison. It was dream time. – 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
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. – Philippe Petit
In my life, I wanted to meet certain people. I never met Charlie Chaplin, but I met Werner Herzog. – Philippe Petit