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Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist
Philippe Petit startled the world when he walked on a taut cable between the soaring twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1974. But even a death-defying high-wire artist has to start somewhere. In 'Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist,' Petit takes you on a highly personal, entertaining and exciting journey from his first card trick at age 6 to his now-legendary walk through the skies of lower Manhattan, offering inspiring advice guaranteed to make your own life’s balancing act go a little smoother.
50 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Philippe Petit
77 books51 followersPhilippe Petit became famous in August 1974 for his high-wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. His walk is known as the "artistic crime of the century". Petit has performed high-wire walks around the world, and a 2008 documentary based on his adventure, Man on Wire, won numerous awards and critical praise.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 8, 2015
I'd read this a few years ago and felt like re-reading it. It's short and quick to read, and there were a lot of interesting insights into his creative process.
Here are some of the parts I highlighted:
I was becoming a magician, a street juggler and a funambulist1; mistakes were my teachers, actions and adventures my textbooks. I was amassing such an enormous quantity of observations and beliefs that I came to trust I could, by myself, metamorphose any bud of a question into a blossom of an answer.
---
the euphoria and mystery of expanding my human condition by invading the territory of the birds, as well as the amazement of looking at the world from a different perspective and the awe at recognizing how seemingly impossible, how infinite, and yet how simple and easy such exploration could become.
---
I was not able to select an adequate solution from the rolling thunder inside my head, I improvised.
---
when question marks imposed detours, I had no choice but to disregard time.
---
Why does problem solving bring me joy? Because it’s a game. The multitude and the diversity in shape and color of the building blocks, the solutions, found in my basket provide me with extensive and entertaining permutations — and the solutions keep multiplying: those lurking as shadows of existing ones; those not yet invented; those that hibernate, awaiting the spring of chance.
---
Are my street education, my autodidact beginnings, my Luddite inclinations and my disregard for rules what allow me to approach a problem and hear whenever it whispers its solution — which is most of the time?
---
Is it my unorthodox way of life that permits me, once I assemble a display of clever solutions, to know for sure that the best one is undoubtedly the most pleasing, the one exuding simplicity, elegance and poetry?
---
We have forsaken our mythology, disrespected miracles and magic, rejected the fairy tales and legends that once transported us, when children, to sleep and invited us to dream!
---
I always start by trusting that I possess what it takes.
---
The repetitive duplication of even the most difficult action will instruct flesh and bones how to negotiate, how to achieve and how to hone any move into a fluid and, if necessary, speedy display; but such mechanical repetition will not elevate the physical prowess into something echoing the human soul, into something inspiring, into art.
---
What both the bullfighter and the flamenco singer of “cante jondo” (“deep song”) refer to as duende — this exceptional and contagious angel’s touch of divine inspiration — occurs only when a human being becomes possessed, passionate and prisoner of his or her creativity.
---
It is by entering the road that leads to perfection that I will amaze and inspire myself, then by extension, inspire others. When the path is steep, I instruct my mind, my soul to pull my body by the sleeve.
---
How can my arts profit from the physical discipline of constant practice if I am not on an intellectual lookout, every second, to understand the reason something escapes my control? I must become my own coach, my own stage director, my own critic and reviewer. My thoughts must balance my actions.
---
I’ve turned self-correction into an art.
---
A child, I longed to impose myself into the adult’s world. I became famished to understand, to know as much as possible. As a teenager, my refrain was already: “Life is short!” When I was learning by myself, I did not see it as learning, I was ... growing; I was ... coloring my life.
---
I was measuring myself by dint of rejections and invitations while my experiments, mostly foolish, forged my personality.
---
I had barely finished and was backing up to look with astonishment at my first creation (an enormous bush of white greenery), when the teacher’s hand had already started to wipe the blackboard clean. She was now amicably enticing me into the next graphic game — or was it a dance? The sudden erasing was an early lesson in humility; the immediate switching to a new project was a delightful taste of something unknown to me: to not lose the impetuosity to create.
---
“Perfection” had become my idea of “the impossible” but in reverse: a process, not a goal; an accomplice, not an adversary.
---
The knowledge I acquired through constant struggle was much more valuable to me than if it had been dispensed by a talkative, didactic professor intending to fill my head.
---
I have the certitude that although the sum of my autodidactic discoveries took a long time to crystallize, I did not lose any time. In fact, I won; the result remains solidly anchored inside me, and it will fuel my creativity for the rest of my life.
---
In front of a white sheet of paper, charcoal in hand or negotiating a choreography with an animal 10 times my size, I kept fighting invisible battles from which I relentlessly gathered trophies: a claw, a hair, a tooth — bits and pieces, treasures, pulled out of a monster I had not yet met but had felt its shadow: the quest for perfection, the impossible.
---
I continue to carry secretly an early-acquired notion that “if 12 people can agree about something, then it is probably not worth doing.”
---
This naive, absurd and ridiculous stand I take when a gigantic slab of granite falls like a guillotine’s blade, blocking my path in the narrow valley of life, is what saves my creative impulse from drying up and is what rekindles my imagination.
---
I make a dream come true via the dual conviction that life is not worth living if I do not dedicate it to the making of the dream and, simultaneously, that I would choose death over not working on making the dream come true!
---
Here I am, seething with the holy madness of my dream: to stretch a 250-foot-long steel cable (weighting some 350 pounds) between the two highest towers in the world, and to wire-walk across it, without permission!
---
The union of altitude and solitude fills me with an arrogant sense of ownership. After all, the sky is my domain.
---
Once on the street, a new thought: “Impossible, yes, so let’s get to work.”
---
To attack with a chisel a block of marble, to bring the hand holding a paintbrush into contact with an empty canvas, to position 10 fingertips above a keyboard and hit the first notes of a Brahms Sonata, the first step for the artist is always a declaration of total involvement, an acknowledged point of no return.
---
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. Between the two, a thin line on which my being hesitates to distribute whatever strength it has left. Around me, no thoughts. Too much space. At my feet, a wire. Nothing else.
---
As long as I keep collecting those minuscule atoms of a problem, one at a time, as long as I make progress, as long as I am not stopping to look up at what’s still an enormous mass of insoluble matter hovering over me, I will overcome!
---
What does it mean to succeed? For me, victory is not an arrival point, it is a process, or a landscape passing by: Victory en passant!
---
Giant victories witnessed by all, minuscule victories visible only to one’s own eyes, it does not matter, as long as I conclude whatever I am doing with a victory. As long as I keep collecting those victories, one after the other, like tiny specks of dust.
---
Force a kid to climb a tree and you may have created an indelible altitude phobia for the rest of the child’s existence. But allow a kid to play in the park, and if it becomes the child’s idea to climb a tree, that activity will become a fearless pleasure and last forever.
---
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.
---
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.
---
Believe marvels exist around you, inside others, within yourself. Go search for them.
Here are some of the parts I highlighted:
I was becoming a magician, a street juggler and a funambulist1; mistakes were my teachers, actions and adventures my textbooks. I was amassing such an enormous quantity of observations and beliefs that I came to trust I could, by myself, metamorphose any bud of a question into a blossom of an answer.
---
the euphoria and mystery of expanding my human condition by invading the territory of the birds, as well as the amazement of looking at the world from a different perspective and the awe at recognizing how seemingly impossible, how infinite, and yet how simple and easy such exploration could become.
---
I was not able to select an adequate solution from the rolling thunder inside my head, I improvised.
---
when question marks imposed detours, I had no choice but to disregard time.
---
Why does problem solving bring me joy? Because it’s a game. The multitude and the diversity in shape and color of the building blocks, the solutions, found in my basket provide me with extensive and entertaining permutations — and the solutions keep multiplying: those lurking as shadows of existing ones; those not yet invented; those that hibernate, awaiting the spring of chance.
---
Are my street education, my autodidact beginnings, my Luddite inclinations and my disregard for rules what allow me to approach a problem and hear whenever it whispers its solution — which is most of the time?
---
Is it my unorthodox way of life that permits me, once I assemble a display of clever solutions, to know for sure that the best one is undoubtedly the most pleasing, the one exuding simplicity, elegance and poetry?
---
We have forsaken our mythology, disrespected miracles and magic, rejected the fairy tales and legends that once transported us, when children, to sleep and invited us to dream!
---
I always start by trusting that I possess what it takes.
---
The repetitive duplication of even the most difficult action will instruct flesh and bones how to negotiate, how to achieve and how to hone any move into a fluid and, if necessary, speedy display; but such mechanical repetition will not elevate the physical prowess into something echoing the human soul, into something inspiring, into art.
---
What both the bullfighter and the flamenco singer of “cante jondo” (“deep song”) refer to as duende — this exceptional and contagious angel’s touch of divine inspiration — occurs only when a human being becomes possessed, passionate and prisoner of his or her creativity.
---
It is by entering the road that leads to perfection that I will amaze and inspire myself, then by extension, inspire others. When the path is steep, I instruct my mind, my soul to pull my body by the sleeve.
---
How can my arts profit from the physical discipline of constant practice if I am not on an intellectual lookout, every second, to understand the reason something escapes my control? I must become my own coach, my own stage director, my own critic and reviewer. My thoughts must balance my actions.
---
I’ve turned self-correction into an art.
---
A child, I longed to impose myself into the adult’s world. I became famished to understand, to know as much as possible. As a teenager, my refrain was already: “Life is short!” When I was learning by myself, I did not see it as learning, I was ... growing; I was ... coloring my life.
---
I was measuring myself by dint of rejections and invitations while my experiments, mostly foolish, forged my personality.
---
I had barely finished and was backing up to look with astonishment at my first creation (an enormous bush of white greenery), when the teacher’s hand had already started to wipe the blackboard clean. She was now amicably enticing me into the next graphic game — or was it a dance? The sudden erasing was an early lesson in humility; the immediate switching to a new project was a delightful taste of something unknown to me: to not lose the impetuosity to create.
---
“Perfection” had become my idea of “the impossible” but in reverse: a process, not a goal; an accomplice, not an adversary.
---
The knowledge I acquired through constant struggle was much more valuable to me than if it had been dispensed by a talkative, didactic professor intending to fill my head.
---
I have the certitude that although the sum of my autodidactic discoveries took a long time to crystallize, I did not lose any time. In fact, I won; the result remains solidly anchored inside me, and it will fuel my creativity for the rest of my life.
---
In front of a white sheet of paper, charcoal in hand or negotiating a choreography with an animal 10 times my size, I kept fighting invisible battles from which I relentlessly gathered trophies: a claw, a hair, a tooth — bits and pieces, treasures, pulled out of a monster I had not yet met but had felt its shadow: the quest for perfection, the impossible.
---
I continue to carry secretly an early-acquired notion that “if 12 people can agree about something, then it is probably not worth doing.”
---
This naive, absurd and ridiculous stand I take when a gigantic slab of granite falls like a guillotine’s blade, blocking my path in the narrow valley of life, is what saves my creative impulse from drying up and is what rekindles my imagination.
---
I make a dream come true via the dual conviction that life is not worth living if I do not dedicate it to the making of the dream and, simultaneously, that I would choose death over not working on making the dream come true!
---
Here I am, seething with the holy madness of my dream: to stretch a 250-foot-long steel cable (weighting some 350 pounds) between the two highest towers in the world, and to wire-walk across it, without permission!
---
The union of altitude and solitude fills me with an arrogant sense of ownership. After all, the sky is my domain.
---
Once on the street, a new thought: “Impossible, yes, so let’s get to work.”
---
To attack with a chisel a block of marble, to bring the hand holding a paintbrush into contact with an empty canvas, to position 10 fingertips above a keyboard and hit the first notes of a Brahms Sonata, the first step for the artist is always a declaration of total involvement, an acknowledged point of no return.
---
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. Between the two, a thin line on which my being hesitates to distribute whatever strength it has left. Around me, no thoughts. Too much space. At my feet, a wire. Nothing else.
---
As long as I keep collecting those minuscule atoms of a problem, one at a time, as long as I make progress, as long as I am not stopping to look up at what’s still an enormous mass of insoluble matter hovering over me, I will overcome!
---
What does it mean to succeed? For me, victory is not an arrival point, it is a process, or a landscape passing by: Victory en passant!
---
Giant victories witnessed by all, minuscule victories visible only to one’s own eyes, it does not matter, as long as I conclude whatever I am doing with a victory. As long as I keep collecting those victories, one after the other, like tiny specks of dust.
---
Force a kid to climb a tree and you may have created an indelible altitude phobia for the rest of the child’s existence. But allow a kid to play in the park, and if it becomes the child’s idea to climb a tree, that activity will become a fearless pleasure and last forever.
---
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.
---
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.
---
Believe marvels exist around you, inside others, within yourself. Go search for them.
July 23, 2012
This book is a refreshing read. It's self-help from the perspective of a wholly original mind. I loved the lessons Philippe has gained from a lifetime of being self-taught. His dedication to overcoming any challenge, disregarding any problem. It makes me feel as if there is so much more we can achieve if we just ignore what others say. Philippe has a lovely 'voice' and the recommendations for music to listen to per chapter as well as his further reading notes add to the book. A charming, fast and quirky read.
September 21, 2013
Petit’s writing is as ebulliently precise as his high wire performances, achieving a level of such perfect control that it feels like reckless improvisation. From the start of the book to the end, surprises fill the pages, filling a madcap bag of tricks that ring of profundity when juxtaposed against his insights into life, success, and achieving the impossible. It should be no surprise, really, considering that this is the man that once illegally tightrope walked 1,350 feet in the air between the World Trade Center towers, with no safety harness. Such a man is incapable of the mundane, and anything he produces is bound to be unique.
Before each chapter, Petit recommends a song to listen as a backdrop to the story. I took the suggestion for one section and listened to Sting’s “Let Your Soul be Your Pilot” while reading about the essential virtues of patience and virtue in achieving anything worthwhile in life. The trick worked. The song combined with the text turned the experience into one of artful introspection an intellectual exploration. It’s a worthwhile idea that I’ve never seen done in a book before, and just one example of the many experiments he makes within the brief text.
The book is essentially a “self help” book, but the form of the text itself adopts the kind of joyful persistence he advises, contrasting with the businesslike tone of most such books. For Petit, solving problems and overcoming obstacles are things to be done for the sake of doing them, rather than for the external rewards they may bring. With each task achieved we are making our spirits wider, wiser, and more worthwhile.
Petit’s obsession with the realization of impossible dreams is infectious. I put the book down feeling wholly inspired.
No passage in the book communicated his intent more clearly to me than the story he told about a woman he saw cleaning the floor in a Bombay airport.
This woman was crawling on her hands and knees across the airport, picking up every bit of detritus, from cigarette butts to strands of lint, and then placing each handful into a trash receptacle. Petit watched her work at her task undisturbed for three straight hours.
The lesson he garnered from the experience as that no task was impossible. If we focus with absolute conviction upon the next minuscule task ahead of us, we will achieve any larger goal composed of those smaller objectives.
In that way, a woman can clean up an entire airport by hand; likewise, a man can fly across the ocean, break into a skyscraper, and walk a tightrope between them.
I put the book thinking about the things I have left to do to achieve my own impossible dreams. Following his advice, I let the larger obstacle fade away, and focused all of my attention and intention instead upon the next tiny task at hand, understanding that in achieving that tiny task I am moving steadily forward towards my larger mission.
I recommend this book enthusiastically to anyone that is trying to make a dream happen. It will leave you more inspired, a bit wiser, and more confident that the impossible really is only a few small, precise steps away.
Happy reading.
Before each chapter, Petit recommends a song to listen as a backdrop to the story. I took the suggestion for one section and listened to Sting’s “Let Your Soul be Your Pilot” while reading about the essential virtues of patience and virtue in achieving anything worthwhile in life. The trick worked. The song combined with the text turned the experience into one of artful introspection an intellectual exploration. It’s a worthwhile idea that I’ve never seen done in a book before, and just one example of the many experiments he makes within the brief text.
The book is essentially a “self help” book, but the form of the text itself adopts the kind of joyful persistence he advises, contrasting with the businesslike tone of most such books. For Petit, solving problems and overcoming obstacles are things to be done for the sake of doing them, rather than for the external rewards they may bring. With each task achieved we are making our spirits wider, wiser, and more worthwhile.
Petit’s obsession with the realization of impossible dreams is infectious. I put the book down feeling wholly inspired.
No passage in the book communicated his intent more clearly to me than the story he told about a woman he saw cleaning the floor in a Bombay airport.
This woman was crawling on her hands and knees across the airport, picking up every bit of detritus, from cigarette butts to strands of lint, and then placing each handful into a trash receptacle. Petit watched her work at her task undisturbed for three straight hours.
The lesson he garnered from the experience as that no task was impossible. If we focus with absolute conviction upon the next minuscule task ahead of us, we will achieve any larger goal composed of those smaller objectives.
In that way, a woman can clean up an entire airport by hand; likewise, a man can fly across the ocean, break into a skyscraper, and walk a tightrope between them.
I put the book thinking about the things I have left to do to achieve my own impossible dreams. Following his advice, I let the larger obstacle fade away, and focused all of my attention and intention instead upon the next tiny task at hand, understanding that in achieving that tiny task I am moving steadily forward towards my larger mission.
I recommend this book enthusiastically to anyone that is trying to make a dream happen. It will leave you more inspired, a bit wiser, and more confident that the impossible really is only a few small, precise steps away.
Happy reading.
October 29, 2012
AMAZING AND INSPIRING.
"To attack with a chisel a block of marble, to bring the hand holding a paintbrush into contact with an empty canvas, to position 10 fingertips above a keyboard and hit the first notes of a Brahms Sonata, the first step for the artist is always a declaration of total involvement, an acknowledged point of no return.—Philippe Petit
As one (would-be) autodidact, reveling in the words of another (the genuine article), I applaud with gratitude, Philippe Petit’s character, culture and tenacity—as evidenced in his exciting, entertaining and enlightening TEDbook, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist. Philippe is a madman who is also a genius. Not since the late Leo Buscaglia have I encountered anyone else who so completely epitomizes the spirit of personhood, as does Monsieur Petit.
To call a TEDbook merely a ‘book,’ though, is to greatly understate the facts. With embedded music, videos, profiles, and web links; ‘Cheating the Impossible,’ like all TEDbooks. is more of an ‘experience’ than just a ‘read.’ And this particular TEDbook is a most enjoyable experience, indeed.
I so liked goodreader Joanna Penn’s review of this book—she is spot on—that I share it with you here, hoping it will help induce you to read this TEDbook! Today.
Joanna’s review: “This book is a refreshing read. It's self-help from the perspective of a wholly original mind. I loved the lessons Philippe has gained from a lifetime of being self-taught. His dedication to overcoming any challenge, disregarding any problem. It makes me feel as if there is so much more we can achieve if we just ignore what others say. Philippe has a lovely 'voice' and the recommendations for music to listen to per chapter as well as his further reading notes add to the book. A charming, fast and quirky read.”
Recommendation: Very highly recommended for anyone in need of an attitude/perspective adjustment (i.e. all of us). See also the video Philippe Petit: The journey across the high wire at http://www.ted.com/talks/philippe_pet.....
"The rest is usually just an inhuman amount of tenacious work."
A TEDbook, http://www.ted.com/pages/tedbooks
"To attack with a chisel a block of marble, to bring the hand holding a paintbrush into contact with an empty canvas, to position 10 fingertips above a keyboard and hit the first notes of a Brahms Sonata, the first step for the artist is always a declaration of total involvement, an acknowledged point of no return.—Philippe Petit
As one (would-be) autodidact, reveling in the words of another (the genuine article), I applaud with gratitude, Philippe Petit’s character, culture and tenacity—as evidenced in his exciting, entertaining and enlightening TEDbook, Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist. Philippe is a madman who is also a genius. Not since the late Leo Buscaglia have I encountered anyone else who so completely epitomizes the spirit of personhood, as does Monsieur Petit.
To call a TEDbook merely a ‘book,’ though, is to greatly understate the facts. With embedded music, videos, profiles, and web links; ‘Cheating the Impossible,’ like all TEDbooks. is more of an ‘experience’ than just a ‘read.’ And this particular TEDbook is a most enjoyable experience, indeed.
I so liked goodreader Joanna Penn’s review of this book—she is spot on—that I share it with you here, hoping it will help induce you to read this TEDbook! Today.
Joanna’s review: “This book is a refreshing read. It's self-help from the perspective of a wholly original mind. I loved the lessons Philippe has gained from a lifetime of being self-taught. His dedication to overcoming any challenge, disregarding any problem. It makes me feel as if there is so much more we can achieve if we just ignore what others say. Philippe has a lovely 'voice' and the recommendations for music to listen to per chapter as well as his further reading notes add to the book. A charming, fast and quirky read.”
Recommendation: Very highly recommended for anyone in need of an attitude/perspective adjustment (i.e. all of us). See also the video Philippe Petit: The journey across the high wire at http://www.ted.com/talks/philippe_pet.....
"The rest is usually just an inhuman amount of tenacious work."
A TEDbook, http://www.ted.com/pages/tedbooks
November 5, 2012
This short TED book puzzled me a bit. Tightrope walking (funambulism, if you prefer) is obviously kinetic and is more about focus and balance than about any intellectual beliefs that can be communicated in a book. Thus the book was more about the personality and general lifelong approach toward kinetically-based learning that produces an excellent tightrope walker, rather than about the act of tightrope walking itself. That said, I can't say I came away with a clear idea about the personality and learning styles being discussed. This book had a quintessentially French approach to philosophical writing, and I tend to be rather mystified by French philosophers. It always seems that I'm missing some underlying cultural concepts that would enable me to get the joke.
October 14, 2015
Five stars for inspirational thoughts.
I got the book because it was written by the high wire artist portrayed in the movie 'The Walk' The man who walked a wired between the tops of the World Trade Center buildings.
If you are looking for a book solely about that feat, this is not it.
At first read, the words were so deep they were hard to understand, but I stuck with it and was rewarded with great thoughts.
If you are willing Phillipe Petit's book will open a part of your mind and heart you didn't know was there.
My favorite part was his description of his first step onto the wire from the World Trade Center .
I got the book because it was written by the high wire artist portrayed in the movie 'The Walk' The man who walked a wired between the tops of the World Trade Center buildings.
If you are looking for a book solely about that feat, this is not it.
At first read, the words were so deep they were hard to understand, but I stuck with it and was rewarded with great thoughts.
If you are willing Phillipe Petit's book will open a part of your mind and heart you didn't know was there.
My favorite part was his description of his first step onto the wire from the World Trade Center .
August 4, 2013
I LOVE Philippe Petit! I got this Kindle Single, based on his TED talk, because he is just such a fascinating and amazing person. He recommends musical accompaniments to each chapter, as well as other books or films after each chapter that build on the theme. See - even his approach to writing a book is unique. Anyway, I loved the documentary Man on Wire and will pretty much read/watch anything he does, so obviously I am biased. But this little book is worth ten times the hour it took to read it.
dnf
September 18, 2015Started skimming at 38% and quit at 54%. I liked the actual TED Talks webisode but thought this book was exceptionally boring and used way too much flowery language that wasn't even remotely necessary and just bogged down the story. I would rather have read about his life from someone else writing it. Deleted from my Kindle.
July 28, 2012
READ this BOOK and gave it four stars~ felt something was missing?? But onto another BOOK!!
Want to read
August 4, 2012Reviewed at Brain Pickings: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...
May 7, 2013
It's impossible to read this book and NOT be enthralled by Petit's intensity, passion, and childlike wonder and joy of learning. What an amzazing story--and life!
June 20, 2013
Simultaneously infuriating and adorable. I love this man.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews