A biography for Philippe Petithasn’t been written yet.
“My first walk illegally at 20 years old was between the towers of Notre Dame.”
“I wanted all my life to give my world into other arts - books, plays, movies - but I didn't want to sell out.”
“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 would like to continue to tell stories of what I did in a biographical way, so I will continue to write.”
“I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.”
“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.”
“Wire-walking in performance is one thing - I never fell, of course. If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it.”
“Passion is the motto of all my actions.”
“When art in general, and film in particular, succeeds is when it pulls you away onto a voyage. Then it's a good film.”
“On a very long and very high wire, I will not hope to not be blown off by high winds. I will have the certitude that such could not happen.”
“To fight adversity, to improvise, to solve problems, and to save the coup, I had gathered all my senses into unusual configurations, which made me grow wild and enhanced my perceptions.”
“Obsessed people are not humorless at all.”
“I have been performing in the street for more than 50 years: magic for basically 60 years, and the high wire 45 years. The beauty of it is that it's never the same. It's never easy. And yet, part of my art is to make it look easy.”
“I've been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing.”
“Certainly, in the story of my life, the walk between the Twin Towers was one of the grandest, one of the most memorable, but not solely the grandest and the most memorable.”
“I am a wire-walker. I can walk any time, anywhere - I'm indestructible.”
“An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph.”