Zitat des Tages von Philippe Petit:
I did a walk in 1973 illegally in the northern side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker.
When art in general, and film in particular, succeeds is when it pulls you away onto a voyage. Then it's a good film.
My first walk illegally at 20 years old was between the towers of Notre Dame.
It is very normal for people on the ground to look at somebody apparently walking in midair and thinking first that person is crazy and thinking secondly that person risks his or her life.
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.
If I am practicing on the wire, and you pushed me, I would not move, and if you take a piece of wood and beat me up on the shoulder and the head, I would not move. You would not put me out of balance. You would not be able to. I am solid as granite when I am on the tight rope, and I should be.
I rendezvous with the long wire and perform the 'torero walk', gliding my feet, holding the pole away from my body, head high.
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.
Every year, I am conscious of the anniversary of my 1974 World Trade Center walk.
As a high wire walker, I do not allow myself to 'leave the wire' during a performance.
I am the poet of the high wire - I never do stunts; I do theatrical performances.
My time is always divided when I prepare for a wire walk. First I dream, technically and artistically, and then I go to work, and I am the master rigger, climbing trees and ladders and constructing. Only then I change my cap and become the performer.
Metaphorically speaking, of course, if I put a problem behind my pillow and fall asleep, very often because my brain went to sleep with that idea or the problem alive, very often in the middle of the night I wake up, and I wake up with a solution or with a direction of solution.
I've frowned at the idea of breaking records, the first one to do something, or do it longer, higher, more difficult.
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.
This moment where we think we rest, when the brain is floating, you know, in sleep, is actually a moment where I could be very creative in a very strange, uncontrolled way.
I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.
Of course, the slightest little mistake on the wire will deprive me of my life, so in that sense, yes, it is a dangerous profession. You have to pay attention; if not, you will lose your life.
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.
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.
For years, I have been working on crossing the Grand Canyon. Actually, there is nobody who says 'no,' but since this is a project that comes from me and not a commission, I have to find the money, plan the logistics, etcetera.
If I have to make a self-portrait, I would put poetry and rebellion on the list. To be able to walk on a wire, to be able to juggle six hoops, you need focus, another word for tenacity, which is passion.
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.
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.
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.
I am not up there by chance. I am there by choice. And I know the wire. And I know my limits. And I am a madman of details.
I would not describe my personality. And I think when you describe people, you are making a mistake. That's not how they are; that's how you perceive them at that moment. It's limiting in front of something that is magnificent and unlimited: life.
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.
On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied.
It is treacherous on a high wire to change your focus point and suddenly look down.
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 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.
I'm a wire-walker, but actually, I'm a moviemaker that hasn't done his first movie.
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.
