Quotes by Philippe Petit

About Philippe Petit:

Philippe Petit is a French high-wire artist who gained fame in 1974 for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, on the morning of 7 August. For his unauthorized feat (which he referred to as "le coup") 1,350-foot (400-metre) above the ground, he rigged a 450-pound (200-kilogram) cable and used a custom-made 26-foot (8-metre) long, 55-pound (25-kilogram) balancing pole. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire. The next week, he celebrated his 25th birthday. All charges were dismissed in exchange for his doing a performance in Central Park for children.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Philippe Petit

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

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

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

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 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 kno...

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

Obsessed people are not humorless at all.

Philippe Petit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ...

Philippe Petit

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

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 found out that total creativity involves a certain intellectual rebellion - not to become a criminal, but somehow. to be totally creating, you have to do things that are a little bit forbidden. You have to feel free, and we know freedom is a hard t...

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...

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

Author Bio

  • NamePhilippe Petit
  • DescriptionFrench high-wire artist
  • BornAugust 13, 1949
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionAcrobat; Magician; Circus Performer; Bicycle Racer