Quotes By Patti Smith

I had to learn, really, how to rein in my energies and discipline myself. And I found it very very useful. I rebelled against it at first, but it's a good thing to have.

Horses pretty much broke as a record in England.

A lot of my audience are in their 50s. But they want me to pretend to continue to be pretending.

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.

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

In fact, I thought my calling was to be a painter.

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

Christianity made us think there's one heaven.

I never felt oppressed because of my gender. When I'm writing a poem or drawing, I'm not a female; I'm an artist.

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

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.

An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.

First of all, anybody who has lasted 30 and went through the 60's is really a survivor.

I always enjoyed doing transgender songs.

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.

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.

Maybe I'll be 48 and die in the gutter in Paris.

I think I'm constantly in a state of adjustment.

I wrote every day. I don't think I could have written 'Just Kids' had I not spent all of the 80s developing my craft as a writer.

I don't think the area of Jerusalem should be part of a Jewish state; it belongs to all people, to Christians and Muslims and the Jewish people.

All I've ever wanted, since I was a child, was to do something wonderful.

Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.

My father's mother was from Liverpool and she had this very beautiful English china. I only wanted to drink my cocoa out of my grandmother's cup and saucer.

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.

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

Usually when I go to a place for the first time, unless there's something historical or spectacular that nature has to offer, the first thing I like to do is see what's on the minds of the people.

I never thought I was gonna live to 30.

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

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

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.