Patti Smith quote: "No matter what anybody thinks about any of them, every record I've done has been done with the same amount of care, anguish, pain, suffering, and joy."

You can't change the world; you can't fix the whole environment. But you can recycle. You ca...
PATTI SMITH

In the period where I had to live the life of a citizen - a life where, like everybody else, I did t...
PATTI SMITH

The Bible is very resonant. It has everything: creation, betrayal, lust, poetry, prophecy, sacrifice...
PATTI SMITH

I sang 'O Holy Night' with the Vatican orchestra, but also a Blake - a lullaby that William ...
PATTI SMITH

I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth
PATTI SMITH

As I grew up, one of my strongest allies has been my sister.
PATTI SMITH

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

The thing is that any sophistication I have, aesthetically, comes from 'Vogue' and 'Harp...
PATTI SMITH

I've said this over and over, but I'll say it a million more times - I'm concerned more ...
PATTI SMITH

I am still a very optimistic person. I continue to do work with joy.
PATTI SMITH

Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man. The idea of redemption is always good ...
PATTI SMITH

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

Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn't serve anyone, and it's painful. But if you ...
PATTI SMITH

For everything bad, there's a million really exciting things, whether it's someone puts out ...
PATTI SMITH

A lot of children don't have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even ab...
PATTI SMITH

We didn't have the phrase 'style icon' when I was young, but I have to say, I really cop...
PATTI SMITH

You can't carve up the world. It's not a pie.
PATTI SMITH

Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably cra...
PATTI SMITH

I come from a working-class family, and I've been working since I was 13, from babysitting to bl...
PATTI SMITH

Artists, musicians, scientists - if you have any kind of visionary aptitude, it's often somethin...
PATTI SMITH

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appeas...
PATTI SMITH

I learned a lot from Arthur Rimbaud. People talk about how he wanted to be a seer and do that throug...
PATTI SMITH

Some of us are born rebellious. Like Jean Genet or Arthur Rimbaud, I roam these mean streets like a ...
PATTI SMITH

I come from a real working class background, and I didn't know anyone sophisticated - except I s...
PATTI SMITH

It was always my belief that rock and roll belonged in the hands of the people, not rock stars.
PATTI SMITH

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

I don't believe people playing rock n' roll should have crowns. We're not kings and quee...
PATTI SMITH

I know that some people have different personas for the different things they do, and I'm not cr...
PATTI SMITH

I haven't had the most thrilling lifestyle. I was a pretty good dresser, but I would have a pret...
PATTI SMITH

I remember when the Bic pen was controversial. They came from France. They were cheap, and when one ...
PATTI SMITH

From very early on in my childhood - four, five years old - I felt alien to the human race. I felt v...
PATTI SMITH

Truthfully, I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I don't have all the disciplin...
PATTI SMITH

For Christmas every year, my mother used to give me those cheap little diaries that would tell your ...
PATTI SMITH

Throughout my life, I happily deferred to family, companions, children.
PATTI SMITH

I like revisiting my early work, and people like to hear it. I don't make people suffer through ...
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 d...
PATTI SMITH

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

Good news doesn't necessarily have to be a positive thing. Bringing good news is imparting hope ...
PATTI SMITH

The issue of gender was never my biggest concern; my biggest concern was doing good work. When the f...
PATTI SMITH

I don't think public life in and of itself can destroy you. I think it's the way people reac...
PATTI SMITH

Polaroid by its nature makes you frugal. You walk around with maybe two packs of film in your pocket...
PATTI SMITH

New York is a great city. There is no question of that. It's such a diverse city. I've walke...
PATTI SMITH

My mother answers all my fan mail.
PATTI SMITH

Nothing will stifle your human evolution more than fame and fortune.
PATTI SMITH

It's not that I have compromised or anything, but it's always been important to me to take g...
PATTI SMITH

My mission is to stay healthy and productive and serve as a good example.
PATTI SMITH

I like gettin' old.
PATTI SMITH

I work to Glenn Gould in the morning and go to sleep listening to Parsifal.
PATTI SMITH

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

I had a really happy childhood - my siblings were great, my mother was very fanciful, and I loved to...
PATTI SMITH

It's no secret - I love detective fiction. One of the reasons I love being in London is because ...
PATTI SMITH

I was studying Francis of Assisi for quite some time, when Benedict was still the pope. And I was st...
PATTI SMITH

My mother and father had so many ups and downs and stayed with each other and helped each other. My ...
PATTI SMITH

Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers we...
PATTI SMITH

My parents were very humanistic, but where we lived was not the cultural center of the world. Hardly...
PATTI SMITH

My parents were very well read. They were both New Englanders, not highly educated, but they had a s...
PATTI SMITH

What I say should always be prefaced with this: I'm not really politically articulate. I just tr...
PATTI SMITH

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

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

I love playing the Fillmore. I love the walk from the hotel and climbing up those old, iron stairs t...
PATTI SMITH

In my low periods, I wondered what was the point of creating art. For whom? Are we animating God? Ar...
PATTI SMITH

In 1974, when I started working with the material that became 'Horses,' a lot of our great v...
PATTI SMITH

The cult of celebrity in the '60s and '70s was really more reserved for movie stars or high ...
PATTI SMITH

I didn't know Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse, but I was affected by both of their deaths because I...
PATTI SMITH

Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply.
PATTI SMITH

I had this idea that the coolest thing that could happen to you was talking with God. My father was ...
PATTI SMITH

My daughter is one of my greatest inspirations. She's an environmentalist, she plays piano, she&...
PATTI SMITH

The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he c...
PATTI SMITH

I had a handful of records, but when I was 11 years old, I liked Puccini as much as Little Richard. ...
PATTI SMITH

Since childhood, it was my dream to go where all the poets and artists had been. Rimbaud, Artaud, Br...
PATTI SMITH

Well, I'm not one of those people who needs the limelight. If I'm performing, that's wha...
PATTI SMITH

Even as a child, I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want to wear red lipstick.
PATTI SMITH

I was in musical comedy. And I did very well, but the memorization killed me. I'm not good at me...
PATTI SMITH

I think we have a creative impulse where suffering can magnify our work, but so can joy. You can be ...
PATTI SMITH

Mohammed personally mapped out seven heavens. If he got to seven, you know there's more.
PATTI SMITH

I don't stay in one discipline because it's more lucrative than another. In fact, the most s...
PATTI SMITH

I would rather write or record something great and have it overlooked than do mediocre work and have...
PATTI SMITH

I'm not afraid of terrorism at all. I'm afraid of loss of our freedom, loss of mobility, los...
PATTI SMITH

I didn't love Jim Morrison 'cause he was self-destructive. I loved him because of his work. ...
PATTI SMITH

I came into music because I thought the presentation of poetry wasn't vibrant enough. So I merge...
PATTI SMITH

Music television is all about the media-oriented version of what it is to be a rock star; it's n...
PATTI SMITH

What I wanted to do in rock 'n roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who h...
PATTI SMITH

Somehow I started introducing writing into my drawings, and after a time, the language took over and...
PATTI SMITH

I have great respect for my parents. I got such beautiful things from both of them. It doesn't m...
PATTI SMITH

Glitter In Their Eyes,
PATTI SMITH

I absolutely remember where I was when I first heard it. It got me through adolescence.
PATTI SMITH

Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.
PATTI SMITH

It would go back and forth between the two of us and then it would go over here and bang its head on...
PATTI SMITH

Ask Me Anything.
PATTI SMITH

He's so humble, and he is always willing to do whatever you ask him to do.
PATTI SMITH

I don't expect a big crowd. But hopefully if this first meeting is interesting the word will spread.
PATTI SMITH

I have another son that's in Iraq right now. So, it's not all the way over for us. But, if we can ta...
PATTI SMITH

The thing is that as you grow through life, the pursuit of art and the pursuit of new ideas, all the...
PATTI SMITH

My mom loved rock n' roll. My father hated it. We couldn't play it when he was around. He li...
PATTI SMITH

Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.
PATTI SMITH

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

I don't believe any artist who says, 'I had to do that because DJs will tell me I can't ...
PATTI SMITH

I remember the first club we played in San Francisco. There were a lot of people on motorcycles stan...
PATTI SMITH

Edie Sedgwick (1943-1971)

I don't know how she did it. Fire
She was shaking all over...
PATTI SMITH

In both cases, we're pleased to have resolved them.
PATTI SMITH

Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine - My sins are my own, they belong to me
PATTI SMITH

People have the power to redeem the work of fools.
PATTI SMITH

Rock Hard.
PATTI SMITH

No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom a...
PATTI SMITH

I was born in 1946, so I was born on the tail end of when everything was deemed important. You made ...
PATTI SMITH

The only thing I daydreamed about was being an opera singer. But I was so skinny and so pathetic tha...
PATTI SMITH

Well I haven't fucked much with the past,
But I've fucked plenty with the future.

- ...
PATTI SMITH

To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, f...
PATTI SMITH

I know what that tastes like, to be a rock-and-roll star - to have a limousine, to have girls scream...
PATTI SMITH

I was never a singer; I can't play any instruments; I had no training. Plus, I was brought up in...
PATTI SMITH

People came at me with all sorts of offers, wanting to make me into a hard-core Cher. I had no desir...
PATTI SMITH

We have such a great depth of human history in all of the arts, whether it's opera or mathematic...
PATTI SMITH

I personally am not interested in people trying to pigeonhole me.
PATTI SMITH

What I wanted in life always was to write something as good as 'Pinocchio.' I wanted to writ...
PATTI SMITH

Why do people want to know exactly who I am? Am I a poet? Am I this or that? I've always made pe...
PATTI SMITH

A real prison breakfast" I said.
"Yeah, but we are free."
And that summed it up.
PATTI SMITH

I refuse to believe that Hendrix had the last possessed hand,
that Joplin had the last drunken ...
PATTI SMITH

He spent a little time with me on the stairs and told me his vision of what he wanted to do with the...
PATTI SMITH

He dreamed of amassing musicians from all over the world in Woodstock and they would sit in a field ...
PATTI SMITH

Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.
PATTI SMITH

I had to learn, really, how to rein in my energies and discipline myself. And I found it very very u...
PATTI SMITH

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

My mother had no end of tragedy in her life. She would make herself get up and take a deep breath an...
PATTI SMITH

My sunglasses are like my guitar.
PATTI SMITH

I was a sickly child, not very strong physically. I wasn't really the greatest in school. I didn...
PATTI SMITH

My parents had three kids right after the Second World War, and we were all sort of sickly. Then I h...
PATTI SMITH

I've always believed in having a sense of balance and stealth.
PATTI SMITH

What I really like is an intelligent review. It doesn't have to be positive. A review that has s...
PATTI SMITH

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

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

I always enjoyed doing transgender songs.
PATTI SMITH

Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a ...
PATTI SMITH

Everyone thinks of God as a man - you can't help it - Santa Claus was a man, therefore God has t...
PATTI SMITH

I've always looked the same. Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated h...
PATTI SMITH

...heroine: the artist, the premier mistress writhering in a garden graced w/highly polished blades ...
PATTI SMITH

I read and feel that same compulsion; the desire to possess what he has written, which can only be s...
PATTI SMITH

Personally, I'm not much for symbolism. I never get it. Why can't things be just as they are? I neve...
PATTI SMITH

There were days, rainy gray days, when the streets of Brooklyn were worthy of a photograph, every wi...
PATTI SMITH

We wanted, it seemed, what we already had, a lover and a friend to create with, side by side. To be ...
PATTI SMITH

Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?
PATTI SMITH

I don't think," he insisted. "I feel.
PATTI SMITH

I believe that we, that this planet, hasn't seen its Golden Age. Everybody says its finished ... art...
PATTI SMITH

Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.

- Gloria
PATTI SMITH

What will happen to us?" I asked. "There will always be us," he answered.
PATTI SMITH

Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.
PATTI SMITH

We were as Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the world.
PATTI SMITH

It walked up to me and I took off running and went and called my father and said you've got to see t...
PATTI SMITH

Secretly I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revelation that human beings create art, that t...
PATTI SMITH JUST KIDS

To get rid of depression, I swim with dolphins.
PATTI STANGER

That is your legacy on this Earth when you leave this Earth: how many hearts you touched.
PATTI DAVIS

The best part about being a matchmaker is you are getting credits in heaven, as I really believe I w...
PATTI STANGER

I was a shy kid with a broom handle that I pretended was a microphone.
PATTI LABELLE

I'm a planner, and most networks don't plan. Bravo doesn't plan. Bravo is lucky in a lot...
PATTI STANGER

I can't do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They h...
PATTI LABELLE

Once you're physically capable of winning a gold medal, the rest is ninety percent mental.
PATTI JOHNSON

It's not easy to date when you're hefty. Besides I like feeling thin because it makes me fee...
PATTI STANGER

I knew people were independently publishing, and I buy books on Amazon. I began seriously considerin...
PATTI DAVIS

Laura Bush went on national television during the week of my father's funeral and spoke out agai...
PATTI DAVIS

My father started growing very quiet as Alzheimer's started claiming more of him. The early stag...
PATTI DAVIS

Callista Gingrich has, I suspect, given Newt's advisers a giant headache. She's a constant p...
PATTI DAVIS

It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.
PATTI DAVIS

So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.
PATTI LABELLE

No one ever saw all of him. It took me nearly four decades to allow my father his shadows, his reser...
PATTI DAVIS

Firstly, though we have to clean this blood up off the tiles before it dries. It is far easier to cl...
PATTI ROBERTS

Even if the Bush Administration had flung open the gates to stem-cell research years ago, we would n...
PATTI DAVIS

Christopher Reeve understood that... everything begins with hope. His vision of walking again, his b...
PATTI DAVIS

So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs - one for each year. I don't want no di...
PATTI LABELLE

I dated a guy and he liked me but I didn't like him. I went through his wardrobe and cleaned out...
PATTI STANGER

I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Al...
PATTI DAVIS

For the women in California, they're just downtrodden because they're so gorgeous here. Ever...
PATTI STANGER

Women are strong now. Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We'...
PATTI LABELLE

I think that one of Elvis' charms was that he could sing almost any kind of music. I am sure tha...
PATTI PAGE

The CIA created, armed and financed the Contras. My father backed them with everything he had. It wa...
PATTI DAVIS

I always believe a woman should have 5 non-negotiables that she should stick to when attracting a ma...
PATTI STANGER

If I was in a situation where it wasn't working and I had a choice with another man, I'm gon...
PATTI STANGER

The house I grew up in had large plate-glass windows, which birds frequently crashed into headfirst....
PATTI DAVIS

Decades later I would look into my father's eyes and try to reach past the murkiness of Alzheime...
PATTI DAVIS

When I was younger, I'd go to the Museum of Television and Radio in New York and watch this beau...
PATTI SCIALFA

Puppies, like all babies, grow up fast. Before long, Gracie was no longer barking at her reflection,...
PATTI DAVIS

It's a tender and complicated dance, watching our parents age. We become protective in ways we n...
PATTI DAVIS

I really just wanted to be a writer, but people tell you, 'You should have a backup career,'...
PATTI DAVIS

I really want to adopt a child... I want to be called 'Mom.' It really is the most beautiful...
PATTI STANGER

There was such a lack of modern, recognizable role models for a young girl in the 1950s. I mean, ...
PATTI SCIALFA

All my kids play guitar, sing, and dabble with writing.
PATTI SCIALFA

The theater is a tough place. It's not cushioned the way it is in film and television.
PATTI LUPONE

All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not g...
PATTI LABELLE

After September 11, I got to understand a little bit of his deep love for this country.
PATTI DAVIS

The word diva to me means doing something supernatural with something natural.
PATTI LUPONE

A diva is someone who is a perfectionist, who does her best in her craft.
PATTI LABELLE

I've been shut down, run down, talked about, dogged out, but that never stopped me from the bein...
PATTI LABELLE

Taylor Swift dates guys so she can write a breakup song about them. I don't think she's dati...
PATTI STANGER

People were a little leery when I was doing the press for my last album 'Rumble Doll,' yes. ...
PATTI SCIALFA

Gays don't have a lot of testosterone. I'm talking about that they use both sides of their b...
PATTI STANGER

I really do think snacking is the key to dieting. We know if you can steady your blood sugar, then y...
PATTI MILLIGAN

Since I won't get to go into their homes, I really need to see from this journaling what the meal si...
PATTI MILLIGAN

The goal is to get you off soda, off caffeine, and get the kids and all your families involved, too.
PATTI MILLIGAN

The first is to love your liver. Your liver is the big powerhouse to process foods, as well as proce...
PATTI MILLIGAN

What I do know is that traditional gender roles are very real and flipping the norm is difficult for...
PATTI STANGER

I have a great track record, and I have never been sued. If I can't find someone for someone, I ...
PATTI STANGER

Texas governor Rick Perry's wife, Anita, has come out slugging in her glittering leopard-print j...
PATTI DAVIS

No matter what anybody thinks about any of them, every record I've done has been done with the same amount of care, anguish, pain, suffering, and joy.

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Patti Smith

No matter what anybody thinks about any of them, every record I've done has been done with the same amount of care, anguish, pain, suffering, and joy.

Patti Smith

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