Patti Smith – 16 Quotes

16 Quotes by Patti Smith

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.

– Patti Smith

I’m not saying I wasn’t flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.

– Patti Smith

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.

– Patti Smith

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.

– Patti Smith

The new artists coming through were very materialistic and Hollywood, not so engaged in communication.

– Patti Smith

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.

– Patti Smith

No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist.

– Patti Smith

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.

– Patti Smith

The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times.

– Patti Smith

Good news doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive thing. Bringing good news is imparting hope to one’s fellow man.

– Patti Smith

My mom loved rock ‘n roll. My father hated it. We couldn’t play it when he was around.

– Patti Smith

I came into music because I thought the presentation of poetry wasn’t vibrant enough. So I merged improvised poetry with basic rock chords.

– Patti Smith

What I wanted to do in rock ‘n roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed so much to that were Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

– Patti Smith

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.

– Patti Smith

What I really like is an intelligent review. It doesn’t have to be positive. A review that has some kind of insight, and sometimes people say something that’s startling or is so poignant.

– Patti Smith

Then I read Little Women, and of course, like a lot of really young girls, I was very taken with Jo – Jo being the writer and the misfit.

– Patti Smith