Patti Smith Quotes - Page 9

I think it's important for people to realize that we were all young, all naive, and also we had lived in a time that had magic.

Your soul was like a network of spittle.

Technology is 50% of rock 'n' roll - the magic, the art, the performance. If you don't have good technicians and a strong road crew who are devoted and believe in you and protect you, you're totally naked.

I'm estranged from social media and I don't really deal with it. I tried to work on a website and it took up all my time. People wanted me to have a Twitter account and I spent the whole day figuring out what would be the first message. I still haven't wrapped my head around it.

I have abandoned so many projects but in the '80s when I left public life to be married and have real children - I love my children and I would never sacrifice them for anything - I had to find a way to simultaneously be a mother and wife and fulfill my duties and still be true to myself as a writer.

Steven [Sebring] was documenting me as a widow with two children, going from 50 to 60 years old. My focus, during that time, was to rediscover myself, stay healthy, take care of my kids and reestablish a relationship with the people.

I started resenting how much art robs from life. I'd go to a party and I couldn't enjoy myself, even sexually. All I could think was how I was going to reinvent the experience into a piece of art.

People came at me with all sorts of offers, wanting to make me into a hard-core Cher. I had no desire for any amount of money to be reformed for someone's vision, because in the end, that's what you got: your clay in someone else's hands.

Should I pursue a path so twisted? Should I crawl defeated and gifted?

I think I work in two worlds. I'll always try to kick through a wall. I did that when I was younger and I still have my way of doing that.

I love my little overgrown yard. And my house is wonderful. It's everything that I need.

I wasn't thinking so much of music. I wasnt thinking so much of perfection or stardom or any of that stuff.

Nothing is a hobby - each discipline is its own world with its own high standards. Of course, every artist has 'minor works' that they do, but I don't think I have any 'minor disciplines.'

I wasn't taking drugs or drinking. I was working and working and working. But I wasn't writing anything.

Ultimately, we are not seeking others to bow to, but to reinforce our individual natures, to help us suffer our own choices, to guide us on our own particular journeys.

I don't know why, the very first word on my very first record is 'Jesus.' I still invoke him as an entity to reckon with.

The two things that constantly inspired me were books and travel.

I don't care whether they're men or women, that's bullshit. A good writer can get into any gender, can get into any mouth. When I write I may be a Brando creep, or a girl laying on the floor, or a Japanese tourist, or a slob like Richard Speck. You have to be a chameleon when you're writing.

I still don't want to be put in the feminist bag. I'm a humanist.

My father hated rock and roll - hated it. My first real argument with my father was over the Rolling Stones. And he never, ever liked rock and roll. He just liked me.

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.

New York is the thing that seduced me.

I want to keep my life as unfettered as possible. So maybe I'll just pretend to get rare books from my catalogue, and not really get them.

What a model of an artist was for me was an artist who worked. Picasso was the ultimate model, because the work ethic he had.

My mother loved rock and roll. She loved high-energy music.