Quotes by Patti Smith

About Patti Smith:

Patricia Lee is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There are so many great 19th-century photographers, and it's really my favorite period, but the amateurs did such beautiful work.

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

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

Patti Smith

Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man. The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times.

Patti Smith

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

Patti Smith

It's not that I have compromised or anything, but it's always been important to me to take good care of myself and be a good example. I'm not much a role model in terms of hair care, though.

Patti Smith

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.

Patti Smith

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.

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.

Patti Smith

Truthfully, I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I don't have all the disciplines and knowledge of a person who's spent their life devoted to photography.

Patti Smith

In the period where I had to live the life of a citizen - a life where, like everybody else, I did tons of laundry and cleaned toilet bowls, changed hundreds of diapers and nursed children - I learned a lot.

Patti Smith

Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably crashes like a house of cards and you have to rebuild it. It's not like you get to a point where you're all right for the rest of your life.

Patti Smith

If I've learned one thing in life, it's not to be so judgmental of other people.

Patti Smith

My mother had no end of tragedy in her life. She would make herself get up and take a deep breath and go out and do laundry. Hang up sheets.

Patti Smith

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.

Patti Smith

I felt alien my whole life, but I didn't feel alien because of my gender. Other people made me aware of my gender.

Patti Smith

I don't think public life in and of itself can destroy you. I think it's the way people react to it, and some people are more sturdy than others... I don't think any one faction can be blamed for a person's self destruction - a certain amount of that...

Patti Smith

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.

Patti Smith

More than anything, that's been the thread through my life - the desire to write, the impulse to write. I mean, it's taken me other places, but it was the impulse to write that led me to singing.

Patti Smith

I've lost lots of men in my life, besides my mother, which is a whole different loss.

Patti Smith

I didn't begin my life in 1975 with 'Horses.' I recorded 'Horses' in 1975, but was drawing in Paris in 1969.

Patti Smith

Author Bio

  • NamePatti Smith
  • DescriptionAmerican singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist
  • BornDecember 30, 1946
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionSinger-songwriter; Poet; Visual Artist; Human Rights Activist; Writer
  • AwardsCommandeur Des Arts Et Des Lettres?; National Book Award