Philippe Petit

I am a wire-walker. I can walk any time, anywhere - I'm indestructible.

My parents were intelligent and encouraging, but at the same time, they were displeased at me becoming a wandering troubadour and wire walker.

There was a time when fire and story would fall asleep in unison. It was dream time.

Notre Dame and Sydney - that was nothing. Notre Dame doesn't have a police station; it is not 1,000 or so feet high. It was a public structure, very easy to access. And Sydney Harbour Bridge was half-and-half: a bridge, in the middle of the night. The World Trade Center was the end of the world. Electronic devices, police dogs.

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

Many people use the words 'death defying' or 'death wishing' when they talk about wire-walking. Many people have asked me: 'So do you have a death wish?' After doing a beautiful walk, I feel like punching them in the nose. It's indecent. I have a life wish.

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 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.

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.

I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.

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.