Quotes By Patti Smith

C'mon, I mean who didn't listen to 'The Who' in the 60s?

I never thought I was gonna live to 30.

I have a daughter who's 11 years old. Maybe she'll grow up independent and really really heavy and become a movie star and she'll play me in my life story.

My sunglasses are like my guitar.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

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

Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.

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

I've always thrived on the encouragement of others.

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.

A lot of children don't have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even about cloth; I liked flannel and not polyester.

Everyone thinks of God as a man - you can't help it - Santa Claus was a man, therefore God has to be a man.

What I say should always be prefaced with this: I'm not really politically articulate. I just try to be like Thomas Paine: what is common sense? So when I say these things to you, I am speaking from a humanist point of view. I just look around and see what's wrong.

I've always believed in having a sense of balance and stealth.

I'm a worker. I do the work to communicate, and I want people to embrace it, and when they do I'm happy.

I wanted to go to Portland because it's a really good book town.

Let's just say that I think any person who aspires, presumes, or feels the calling to be an artist has a built-in sense of duty.

The issue of gender was never my biggest concern; my biggest concern was doing good work. When the feminist movement really got going, I wasn't an active part of it because I was more concerned with my own mental pursuits.

An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.

I am not really certain how original my contribution to music is as I am obviously an amateur.

We tried not to age, but time had its rage.

My mother answers all my fan mail.

I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.

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.

Rock n' roll is dream soup, what's your brand?

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.

I loved books; I read my childhood away. I was more interested in my interior world.

As an artist, I used to think that my responsibility was to do good work. But I had to learn from the '70s on that being a public figure presents another aspect of responsibility.

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.

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