Patti Smith
79 quotes
Biography
"I have great respect for my parents. I got such beautiful things from both of them. It doesn't mean that we didn't have our rough times, but they were remarkable people who were open-minded, creative and hard-working, and had great senses of humor."
"Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don't abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book."(Acceptance speech, National Book Award 2010 (Nonfiction), November 17, 2010)"
"I refuse to believe that Hendrix had the last possessed hand,that Joplin had the last drunken throat,that Morrison had the last enlightened mind."
"Make your interactions with people transformational, not just transactional."
"In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth. For nothing is more precious than the life force and may the love of that force guide you as you go."
"Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply."
"We were as Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the world."
"...the law of empathy, by which he could, by his will, transfer himself into an object or a work of art, and thus inflence the outer world. He did not feel redeemed by the work he did. He did not seek redemption. He sought to see what others did not, the projection of his imagination."
"Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man. The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times."
"In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth."
"Americans just don't know what being a movie star's all about."
"She is a soldier. She will not be defeated."
"We tried not to age, but time had its rage."
"I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business."
"I don't think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I'm concerned about are at the top of other people's agendas - not right now, when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change."
"I've always looked the same. Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a kid, I had a sailor shirt and the same old corduroy pants, and that's what I wanted to wear everyday."
"The new artists coming through were very materialistic and Hollywood, not so engaged in communication."
"From very early on in my childhood - four, five years old - I felt alien to the human race. I felt very comfortable with thinking I was from another planet, because I felt disconnected - I was very tall and skinny, and I didn't look like anybody else, I didn't even look like any member of my family."
"To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom."
"No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist."
"The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times."
"Good news doesn't necessarily have to be a positive thing. Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man."
"My mom loved rock 'n roll. My father hated it. We couldn't play it when he was around."
"I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business."
"When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep."