Philippe Petit Quotes:

Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge - and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope.

source: - "Man on Wire", www.imdb.com. 2008.

Topics: Exercise, Years, Ideas, Life On The Edge, Living On The Edge

It's impossible, that's for sure. So let's start working.

Topics: Leadership, Creative, Impossible

Limits exist only in the souls of those who do not dream.

Topics: Dream, Soul, Limits

I focus, I invent, I transform, I challenge, I attempt, I observe, I perform.

Topics: Focus, Challenges

Why does almost every ad agency in the world set the time on a watch at 10:10 before photographing it?

Topics: Agency, Watches, World

When you are a young person, the world is yours. You can do the impossible.

Topics: World, Impossible, Young, World Is Yours

I am the poet of the high wire - I never do stunts; I do theatrical performances.

Topics: Wire, Poet, Theatrical, Stuntman

I don't have a career, I have a life. Don't think of a career, think about your passion and look for inspiration.

Topics: Inspiration, Passion, Thinking

Improvisation is empowering because it welcomes the unknown. And since what's impossible is always unknown, it allows me to believe I can cheat the impossible.

Topics: Motivation, Inspiration, Believe

Passion is the model of all my actions.

Topics: Life, Passion, Purpose

Life should be lived on the edge of life.

Topics: Should

Wirewalker, trust your feet! Let them lead you; they know the way.

source: - Philippe Petit (2015). “The Walk”, p.301, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Topics: Feet, Way

On one side, the mass of a mountain. A life I know. On the other, the universe of the clouds, so full of unknown that it seems empty to us. Too much space.

source: - Philippe Petit (2015). “To Reach the Clouds: The Walk film tie in”, p.194, Faber & Faber

Topics: Space, Clouds, Mountain

You must not fall. / When you lose your balance, resist for a long time before turning yourself toward the earth. Then jump. / You must not force yourself to stay steady. You must move forward.

source: - Philippe Petit (1985). “On the High Wire”, Random House Incorporated

Topics: Moving, Fall, Long

The essential thing is to etch movements in the sky, movements so still they leave no trace. The essential thing is simplicity. / That is why the long path to perfection is horizontal.

Topics: Sky, Perfection, Long, Horizontal

Whenever other worlds invite us, whenever we are balancing on the boundaries of our limited human condition, that’s where life starts, that’s where you start feeling yourself living.

Topics: Other Worlds, Feelings, Boundaries

I don't like to risk my life, so I prepare sometimes for months or sometimes for years. But sometimes after a walk, I look what I have done, and I have a little bit of fear coming to me, just looking at pictures.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Years, Risk, Looks

I know it's impossible. But I know I'll do it!

source: - Philippe Petit (2015). “The Walk”, p.48, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Topics: Impossible, Knows

You can always find a way to do something. Now, of course, when I do the action, it's an action that inspires people, it's a gift to people, it's not the other way around, I do not take something, I do not hurt people. Yes, I think today would be more than impossible and yet part of me would think that I continue to think that nothing is impossible.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Hurt, Thinking, People, Nothing Is Impossible

For me, when I am on the wire, I do not have a problem of eliminating or blocking fear. I do not really feel fear, although it is a fearful activity to walk in thin air, as I do without any safety device, but I am not fearful.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Block, Air, Safety

I usually practice on a small, low wire, that features the predominant wind. I study the meteorology of the place at the time that I am supposed to do my walk, and then I find the predominant direction and velocity of the wind and I train to fight that wind.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Fighting, Wind, Practice, Meteorology

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.

Topics: Risk, Preparation, Wire

I am very attracted by the mysterious landscape of Easter Island. Not only because it is a piece of land that is further away from another, but also because of the beautiful statues of Moai that are there. To do a beautiful walk there, I would have to involve the Moai, and the Rapa Nui people who live on the island.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Beautiful, Easter, Islands, Easter Island

If I die, what a beautiful death.

source: - "Man on Wire". Documentary, Biography, www.imdb.com. 2008.

Topics: Beautiful, Beautiful Death, Dies

I have walked many times around the world and each time it's different from the last one. It feels a little bit like I am a theatrical director, creating a theatre in space. It's really a theater in the sky. But of course the World Trade Center is certainly the most well-known of my productions.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Sky, Creating, Space, Most Well Known, World Trade

The practical answer is, no it would be totally impossible for young or foreign people to get access to roof of a building that stands in the heart of a giant city and to put a cable across.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Heart, Cities, People

When I perform outside, the major problem that could arise is strong wind.I spend months preparing for the types of wind that occur in different locations.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Major Problems, Strong Winds

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.

Topics: Daredevil, Stuntman, Sculpting

If I look at the performance of another friend Sting, whenever I hear him take over a stage and share his art with millions, it's very inspiring to me. So I have a lot in my life, a lot of friends who inspire me and I'm sure it goes the other way around, or so that I inspire them.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Very Inspiring

I am very sensitive to all form of music, painting, sculpting, dancing, and I love cinema also. For example if I look at the work of the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who happens to be a friend of mine, everything he does is inspiring to me.

source: - Source: collider.com

Topics: Sculpting