Patti Smith

“I am still a very optimistic person. I continue to do work with joy.”

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

“I've always looked the same. Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a kid, I had a sailor shirt and the same old corduroy pants, an...”

“Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a kid, I had a sailor shirt and the same old corduroy pants, and that's what I wanted to wea...”

“It's taken me other places, but it was the impulse to write that led me to singing. I'm not a musician. I never thought of performing in a rock n' roll band. I was just drawn in. It was like...”

“I was actually born in Chicago, and then when I was a toddler, my parents moved to Philadelphia.”

“When I was a child, I was certain that I could remember what it was like to live on Venus; I could remember what it was like to live in the American Plains. I could remember. And it's ancien...”

“My father was a dreamy fellow - he read Plato and Socrates and watched Phillies games.”

“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.”

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

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

“I've written a lot of prose. I just haven't published it.”

“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.”

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

“People have the power to redeem the work of fools.”

“When I was a young girl, I'd love giving book reports.”

“You're not a rock n' roll person four hours a day or even when you're on stage. It's become the rhythm of your whole life.”

“I loved being a rock and roll star, but it wasn't what I wanted in life.”

“I know what that tastes like, to be a rock-and-roll star - to have a limousine, to have girls screaming when they see you, girls trying to cut my hair, get a piece of me. But I don't walk ar...”

“The thing is, it's not uncool to worry about people who seem like they're going on the wrong path. There's nothing cool about being self-destructive.”