Quotes By Patti Smith

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've always thrived on the encouragement of others.

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.

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 believed in having a sense of balance and stealth.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My mother answers all my fan mail.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag.

I want to be around a really long time. I want to be a thorn in the side of everything as long as possible.

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.

I know I'm a strong performer. I'm not an evolved musician.

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.