If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk.
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 thing to get.
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.
It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for 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.
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.
Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary.
I am a thief of knowledge, and in a survival way, I had to solve all the problems around me.
On one day of the week, I relax - which is not true, I work furiously on other things. 'Relax' is not a word to me.
I love to remember the World Trade Centre walk, but it should not define me.
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.
I walk on the wire; it's my profession, and there are no two high wire walks alike.
It is treacherous on a high wire to change your focus point and suddenly look down.
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.
I am the poet of the high wire - I never do stunts; I do theatrical performances.
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.
My journey has always been the balance between chaos and order.
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.
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.
There was a time when fire and story would fall asleep in unison. It was dream time.
I have been expelled from five different schools when I was a kid. And I learned basically all what I do by myself.
I was never part of the sailing circle, but I enjoy when I'm invited to sail.
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.
My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker.
I focus, I invent, I transform, I challenge, I attempt, I observe, I perform.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph.
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.
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.
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.
I rendezvous with the long wire and perform the 'torero walk', gliding my feet, holding the pole away from my body, head high.
Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers.
I've frowned at the idea of breaking records, the first one to do something, or do it longer, higher, more difficult.
I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.
On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied.
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.
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.
For years, I have been working on crossing the Grand Canyon. Actually, there is nobody who says 'no,' but since this is a project that comes from me and not a commission, I have to find the money, plan the logistics, etcetera.
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.
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.
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.
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 motto of all my actions.
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.
There is a child inside me that wants to come out and do something to surprise all the adults.
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.
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.
