Quotes from Philippe Petit

You see, it's actually very good that a human activity is performed very close to death, because that's where life is. Life is, at its most valuable and most full, very close to the boundary of life.

It's part of my life to feel like a criminal, to have eyes in my back and see if I'm being followed. It's a feeling that comes from street juggling because I have been arrested so many times.

My journey has always been the balance between chaos and order.

Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers.

I was born in a world of opera, theatre, films, poetry, art, and therefore, out of the wire, I made a stage. That's why they call me a high wire artist.

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.

As I'm studying magic, juggling is mentioned repeatedly as a great way to acquire dexterity and coordination. Now, I had long admired how fast and fluidly jugglers make objects fly. So that's it. I'm 14; I'm becoming a juggler.

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 wanted all my life to give my world into other arts - books, plays, movies - but I didn't want to sell out.

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.

If I die, what a beautiful death.