High Wire Act Quotes

I feel more comfortable in drama. Comedy is a high-wire act. I find it stressful. It's a precision science in a way.

I did a lot of trapeze stuff when I did 'Pippin' and continued to do it afterward. Flying is so fun, and I was used to the harness idea, but these harnesses are like intense, full bodysuit things.

I feel like I grew up in the circus. I know planes, trains and automobiles. And really talented, weird people.

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.

It is no achievement to walk a tightrope laid flat on the floor.

I will always remember this summer day in Paris, when I was to perform a great acrobatic move. I can still see myself stepping on the ring of a packed circus along real performers.

I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air.

If I had been born in the circus, my parents would have pushed me on that little high wire at four years old. That's when the body is most limber to learn those acrobatics.

It's very easy to walk on a wire if you spend a whole lifetime practicing for it.

Nik Wallenda and his family are legendary.

The very first time I went to Madison Square Garden, I went to see the circus.

All day I wait for my job, which I do at night, and once I get there, I walk a tightrope, jump through hoops, and take breathtaking dives.

Over my career, I've had to do a lot of shows that involve stunts, and I so enjoy stunts.

I want to be a traveling circus in that big-league uniform, like everybody else.

I was thrown out of different schools because I was practicing my arts - magic, juggling, and the high wire.

It was a Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun.

There were times in my career ... when I felt like a trapeze artist doing dangerous somersaults without a net underneath. When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does.

What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. Look at us. We run a tightrope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now! This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of.

The difference between film and TV, for me, is just that huge thing of knowing that there's a script that is not going to change and you can go really deep into that. With TV, you're just constantly on a high-wire, making sure you don't fall.

The only TV I would be interested in exploring would be live television. There's no substitute for a team of artists performing at their peak live when failure is possible. It's a high-wire act. That excites me.

What I'm doing is a natural wonder. If not, there'd be 150 people behind me on the wire.

I'm not an artist, and I want to take risks, and when the possibility of failure occurs, it's because the idea is all exciting or interesting as a high wire act, and sometimes you've got to fall off, just by virtue of the fact that you're constantly trying to evolve and do new things.

Unlike a high-wire walker, I don't think any musician strikes the wires of a piano or draws a bow across a violin's strings primarily for the kick of an adrenalin fix. There is danger on stage, but dropped notes are not broken bones; a memory lapse is not a tumble to the ground.

Acting is like a high wire act. Your margin for error is very slim.

I feel more comfortable in drama. Comedy's is a high-wire act. I find it stressful. It's a precision science, in a way. And when you're filming, the thing comedy depends on becomes a much more difficult commodity. The thing you depend on is spontaneity.