Patti Smith

Patti Smith

"A writer or any artist can’t expect to be embraced by the people. I've done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling. But it’s beautiful to be embraced by the people. Some people have said to me, Well, don’t you think that kind of success spoils one as an artist? If you’re a punk rocker, you don’t want to have a hit record…And I say to them, Fuck you! One does their work for the people. And the more people you can touch, the more wonderful it is. You don’t do your work and say, I only want the cool people to read it. You want everyone to be transported, or hopefully inspired by it. When I was really young, William Burroughs told me, Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work. And make the right choices and protect your work. And if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency."
49 Quotes
"A writer or any artist can’t expect to be embraced by the people. I've done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling. But it’s beautiful to be embraced by the people. Some people have said to me, Well, don’t you think that kind of success spoils one as an artist? If you’re a punk rocker, you don’t want to have a hit record…And I say to them, Fuck you! One does their work for the people. And the more people you can touch, the more wonderful it is. You don’t do your work and say, I only want the cool people to read it. You want everyone to be transported, or hopefully inspired by it. When I was really young, William Burroughs told me, Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work. And make the right choices and protect your work. And if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency."
Patti Smith
"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)"
Patti Smith
"My dad got a job in a factory in Philadelphia, so I was raised in Germantown in a sort of a barracks for soldiers. They had housing for temporary housing. And then my parents saved money and bought a little house in South Jersey, built on a swamp."
Patti Smith
"I'm not afraid of terrorism at all. I'm afraid of loss of our freedom, loss of mobility, loss of global comradeship."
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
"You can't change the world you can't fix the whole environment. But you can recycle. You can turn the water off when you're brushing your teeth. You can do small things."
Patti Smith
"The Bible is very resonant. It has everything: creation, betrayal, lust, poetry, prophecy, sacrifice. All great things are in the Bible, and all great writers have drawn from it and more than people realise, whether Shakespeare, Herman Melville or Bob Dylan."
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
"I didn't love Jim Morrison 'cause he was self-destructive. I loved him because of his work. Because of the way he merged poetry and rock-and-roll. Because he did something new."
Patti Smith
"I'm not really a musician. I'm a performer, and I love rock n' roll. I've embraced rock n' roll because it encompasses all the things I'm interested in: poetry, revolution, sexuality, political activism - all of these things can be found in rock n' roll."
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. That was my original mission."
Patti Smith
"I'm a human being, I'm a friend, I'm a mom, I'm a writer, and I'm an artist. I do play electric guitar and all of that, but in the end, I'm just a person."
Patti Smith
"My mom loved rock 'n roll. My father hated it. We couldn't play it when he was around."
Patti Smith
"My mom loved rock n' roll. My father hated it. We couldn't play it when he was around. He liked classical music and Duke Ellington."
Patti Smith
"The thing is that as you grow through life, the pursuit of art and the pursuit of new ideas, all these things keeps your mind elastic."
Patti Smith
"In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth."
Patti Smith
"I come from a real working class background, and I didn't know anyone sophisticated - except I saw Edie Sedgewick once at the Art Museum in Philly. She had these black leotards and little black pumps and this big ermine cape and all these white dogs and black sunglasses and black eyes. She was classy!"
Patti Smith
"I get irritated with the world. I get irritated with politicians. I get very irritated with governments and with corporations, but in terms of imagination - my imagination is always fertile. I'm either thinking of my own things or constantly engaged by the things that other people do."
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
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