For me, since I have a life wish, not a death wish, for me, I was not gambling my life. I was doing something much more beautiful. I was carrying my life across.
— Philippe Petit
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.
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.
Every year, I am conscious of the anniversary of my 1974 World Trade Center walk.
I was never part of the sailing circle, but I enjoy when I'm invited to sail.
I started very early, from five or six years old, to climb. To climb trees, to climb rocks everywhere I could. At some point, of course, I used a rope.
I have been expelled from five different schools when I was a kid. And I learned basically all what I do by myself.
I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.
How could I share with you how I felt when two towers that I loved, two pieces of steel and glass and concrete fell down, when actually they took with them thousands of human lives? That is the actual tragedy. But those towers were almost human for me. I was in love with them, and that's why I married them with a tight rope.
If a leaf fell from a tree, I'd stop juggling and play with the leaf. I went to my prop bag and got a little bandage and stuck the leaf back on the tree. People loved it.
I love or hate things straight away. I like to go directly to action to see the result. I think I must be difficult, but at the same time, it's not for me to say.
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.
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.
Faith is what replaces doubt in my dictionary.
An intellectual challenge presents itself? I am in bliss. Instantly, it brings forth the notion of triumph.
I found out that total creativity involves a certain intellectual rebellion - not to become a criminal, but somehow. to be totally creating, you have to do things that are a little bit forbidden. You have to feel free, and we know freedom is a hard thing to get.
Right after my Twin Towers walk, I was approached by hundreds of people, and I said no to all the offers. I could have become a millionaire overnight, obviously, but I said no, and I continue to be uninterested.
Usually, when I walk on a wire, I inspect the anchor point on both sides before crossing.
I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
I needed more knowledge in rigging and knotting. I started collecting books on knots and really learning more and more. That's how it started. And also in magic, of course. With a piece of rope, you can do magic.
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.
My journey has always been the balance between chaos and order.
My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker.
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.
It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it.
There is a child inside me that wants to come out and do something to surprise all the adults.
I started putting a wire up in secret and performing without permission. Notre Dame, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the World Trade Center. And I developed a certitude, a faith that convinced me that I will get safely to the other side. If not, I will never do that first step.
When I was six years old, I fell in love with magic. For Christmas, I got a magic box and a very old book on card manipulation. Somehow, I was more interested in pure manipulation than in all the silly little tricks in the box.
There was a time when fire and story would fall asleep in unison. It was dream time.
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.
I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire.
I've been arrested many times for illegal high wire walking and illegal street performing.
I have a fear of water, believe it or not. To put a wire 12 feet over a swimming pool frightens me. I don't like water.
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 started making monkey bridges, like kids do, and climbing and rappelling with ropes. Very naturally, I needed some knots. At the very beginning, I didn't care, I didn't know, and then slowly I started to know, and I started to care. I wanted to know more knots or the right knot for the special action.
To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.
I keep saying I am an auto-didact, but I have a lot of outside influences. One I could cite is juggler Francis Brunn, who was the first man to throw ten rings in the air; he was really an amazing juggler who showed onstage the quest for perfection.
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.
I hate all electronic things that are supposed to help the human being. You don't smell, you don't hear, you don't touch anymore.
The wire is a safe place for me to be. The street is not. Life is not. It's a rigorous and simple path. It's straight. You don't have meanders like, you know, on the ground, in life.
I love to remember the World Trade Centre walk, but it should not define me.
On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied.
Passion is the motto of all my actions.
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.
