A biography for Philippe Petithasn’t been written yet.
“Wirewalker, trust your feet! Let them lead you; they know the way.”
“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.”
“It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it.”
“If I have to make a self-portrait, I would put poetry and rebellion on the list. To be able to walk on a wire, to be able to juggle six hoops, you need focus, another word for tenacity, which is passion.”
“I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“It's always easy to describe something complex by applying to it an already known label.”
“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.”
“I will never fall prey to celebrity because I am too busy. I have other things to do than look at myself in the mirror.”
“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.”
“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.”
“My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I've frowned at the idea of breaking records, the first one to do something, or do it longer, higher, more difficult.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”