Dean Potter

“My dad was in the army for most of my youth. He was very regimented and I learned to train from him.”

“'The Man Who Can Fly' captures my quest for true human flight. This pursuit of the unknown and following dreams that may or may not be attained are the most important principles we portray in the National Geographic Special.”

“I've never had a close call.”

“I have this unbeatable move where no matter what happens I can catch the line - it's the number one thing I practice - so my philosophy there is martial arts based, never putting myself in a position where I can receive a lethal blow. I haven't missed catching the line for over fifteen years.”

“When you do things that are different and extreme, some people like it and some people don't. I don't really care if I am liked or not liked.”

“I've never tried to be the leader. All I focus on is climbing.”

“When I was a little boy, my first memory was a flying dream. In my dream, I flew - and I also fell. I always wondered as I got older if it was some premonition of me falling to my death.”

“I don't have a lot of pressure on myself to be successful.”

“When I go out there untethered, the feelings that I slip I die totally overwhelms me. I am after the feeling of total control. I'm after that in all of life, and for now that's how I find it.”

“I know I'm not a cutting-edge free climber. Free soloing, I'm comfortable to 5.10-plus or 5.11a. But if I was a grade higher I could do some amazing things.”

“I spend more time with Whisper than I do with anybody else. I chose her when she was three or four days old, I've had her since she was nine weeks. She's a mini Australian cattle dog; cattle dogs need to have a job, and her job is just walking after me.”

“I'm not saying take your dog wingsuit flying. But if we can take Whisper BASE jumping or climbing, maybe you can take your dog places you didn't consider. Just find better ways to take your dog with you. They just love to be with their people and their pack.”

“I had trouble focusing as a child and I still sort of do, but when you climb and you're going to die if you fall, you have 100 percent focus. That's a rarity in life and a gift to have something that brings you that clarity.”

“The wingsuit is basically the flying squirrel suit.”

“I don't want to be an athlete so much. I groove more with artists and deep thinkers.”

“The attractive thing about rock climbing: There are no rules.”

“If you're thousands of feet up with just a thin piece of webbing that you're standing on, it's really a sensation of being at one with the air.”

“I regret the negative press that has come with my climb of the Delicate Arch, but I think that there is a bigger picture. And I would hope that it could open the eyes of the public and the community to the bigger problem of what's going on, which is the mismanagement of our wild lands and the national park.”

“I would never make a movie just for the sake of making a movie.”

“When there's a death consequence, when you are doing things that if you mess up you die, I like the way it causes my senses to peak. I can see more clearly. You can think much faster. You hear at a different level.”