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.

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.

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

What I think tailors the creativity of most people are the rules that we learn from the age we are very small - in school, our parents.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it.

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.

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

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

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.

On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied.

Passion is the motto of all my actions.

Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary.

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.