I was in art school once a week from six to 16, which was essential in shaping my artistic sensitivity.
When art in general, and film in particular, succeeds is when it pulls you away onto a voyage. Then it's a good film.
Everybody wanted me to be rich and famous on my art. And I said no to all the commercials and all the seedy offers.
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.
The practical answer is, no it would be totally impossible for young or foreign people to get access to roof of a building that stands in the heart of a giant city and to put a cable across.
If I look at the performance of another friend Sting, whenever I hear him take over a stage and share his art with millions, it's very inspiring to me. So I have a lot in my life, a lot of friends who inspire me and I'm sure it goes the other way around, or so that I inspire them.
I was born in a world of opera, theatre, films, poetry, art, and therefore, out of the wire, I made a stage. That's why they call me a high wire artist.
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.
Fame was never something I was seeking in my artistic journey. It's to be used as a tool for an artist to break open doors and keep creating. That's how I enjoyed fame in '74; it was not just for the emptiness of being famous.