Philippe Petit > Quotes

“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.”
― Philippe Petit

“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.”
― Philippe Petit

“I know it's impossible. But I know I'll do it!”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“Life should be lived on the edge. 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.”
― Philippe Petit

“It's impossible, that's for sure. So let's start working.”
― Philippe Petit, Man on Wire

“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.”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk!”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“When the towers again twin-tickle the clouds, I offer to walk again, to be the expression of the builder's collective voice. Together, we will rejoice in an aerial song of victory. I will carry my life across the wire, as your life, as all our lives, past, present, and future -the lives lost, the lives welcomed since.
we can overcome.”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“There is no such thing as motivation in my world. I am not motivated to do what I do. As an artist, I am driven, I am compelled, I am thrust forward by a force so rooted inside me, so convincing, that it seems futile to try to explain it. Although it has a name: passion.”
― Philippe Petit, Creativity: The Perfect Crime

“Limits exist only in the souls of those who do not dream”
― Philippe Petit, Creativity: The Perfect Crime

“The rest is usually just an inhuman amount of tenacious work.”
― Philippe Petit, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

“It cannot be done all at once. To overpower vertigo - the keeper of the abyss- one must tame it, cautiously.”
― Philippe Petit

“I know it’s impossible. But I know I’ll do it!”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: The Walk film tie in

“Wirewalker, trust your feet! Let them lead you; they know the way.”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“Les limites existent seulement dans l'esprit de ceux qui ne savent pas rêver."
(The limits exist only in the minds of those who can not dream)”
― Philippe Petit

“My destiny no longer has me conquering the highest toowers in the world, but rather the void they protect.
This cannot be measured.”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“If it’s a problem of fire, fire might very well be the answer.”
― Philippe Petit, Creativity: The Perfect Crime

“Would anyone but a crazed bicephalous being, half engineer, half poet, willingly shackle himself to a venture of such magnitude? I am prisoner of my dream.”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“Believe marvels exist around you, inside others, within yourself. Go search for them. Gallop through life and without dismounting your horse manage (like a Cossack!) to pick up bits of otherworldliness lying on the path. Feed your imagination that way. That way, shape your destiny.”
― Philippe Petit, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

“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.”
― Philippe Petit, Creativity: The Perfect Crime

“forever. I would add to my reply as well, the borrowing of a simple invitation from the 13th-century English philosopher Roger Bacon: “Contemplate the world!” Because if we do not store in our heart a profound reverence for the miracles of nature as well as for the accomplishments of men and for their sometimes kind and illustrious way of thinking — even if our life is at its beginning and we have seen nothing yet; or if we’ve seen it all and find man evil — we will not be capable of recognizing those marvels, we will not be”
― Philippe Petit, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

“I kept talking until the coup and its various acts and scenes dissolved into a liquid mass that infiltrated my veins—until the air I breathed was the plan itself. Until I became the plan”
― Philippe Petit, Creativity: The Perfect Crime

“The success of this first “official” intrusion seems to bring the coup closer to … To reality?”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers

“Les limites existent seulement dans l'esprit de ceux qui ne savent pas rêver.”
― Philippe Petit

“And do not forget that the blood of rebellion flows through your veins, that around your soul meanders the river of perfection; above all stay devoted to your art — even if it is only the art of living! — above all remain loyal to it.”
― Philippe Petit, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

“empowered by those values, when we soon encounter them as we develop, or when they keep crossing our paths as we grow old.”
― Philippe Petit, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

“Therefore my advice would encompass the following nine commandments:      Do not get used to a sole body language.      Do not establish a doctrine.      Surprise yourself.      Dream in a loud voice.      Invent.      Keep diligent, mysterious and secret.      Have a just and generous heart.      Compassion, yes; but no remorse.      Acquire a thirst for excellence.”
― Philippe Petit, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

“Believe in the miracles that exist around you, inside others, in you. Go look for them. Feed your imagination. In this way, build your destiny.”
― Philippe Petit

“Why does almost every ad agency in the world set the time on a watch at 10:10 before photographing it?”
― Philippe Petit, Creativity: The Perfect Crime

“The union of altitude and solitude fills me with an arrogant sense of ownership.”
― Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers