Quotes by Patti Smith
When I stopped performing for 16 years and lived in Michigan and was married and raising my children, I wrote about four or five books. I haven't published them.
I loved books; I read my childhood away. I was more interested in my interior world.
I was raised in rural south Jersey, and there was no culture there. There was a small library, and that was it. There was nothing else.
My parents had three kids right after the Second World War, and we were all sort of sickly. Then I had a fourth sibling, with very serious asthma. The medical bills... So my parents always struggled.
I'm not afraid of terrorism at all. I'm afraid of loss of our freedom, loss of mobility, loss of global comradeship.
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.
I felt alien my whole life, but I didn't feel alien because of my gender. Other people made me aware of my gender.
Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn't serve anyone, and it's painful. But if you transform it into remembrance, then you're magnifying the person you lost and also giving something of that person to other people, so they can experience something of that person.
I wanted to go to Portland because it's a really good book town.
Sure I destroyed my guitar at every concert, but it was okay, because I'd always get a shiny new one the very next day.
I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.
I'm not really a nostalgic person.
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.
Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.
An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.
Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably crashes like a house of cards and you have to rebuild it. It's not like you get to a point where you're all right for the rest of your life.
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.
I've always thrived on the encouragement of others.
I had a really happy childhood - my siblings were great, my mother was very fanciful, and I loved to read. But there was always financial strife.
A day doesn't go by where I don't create something.
Americans just don't know what being a movie star's all about.
Horses pretty much broke as a record in England.
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.
It's no secret - I love detective fiction. One of the reasons I love being in London is because I like to watch all the shows on TV. I watch them all.
Somehow I started introducing writing into my drawings, and after a time, the language took over and I started getting very involved with the handwriting and then the look of the handwriting.
