I immersed myself in books and rock 'n' roll, the adolescent salvation ... — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I always wrote like rock 'n' roll. And I always listen to rock 'n' roll as poetry. — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I'd try to write my poems in a certain rhythm. I had my rock 'n' roll stuff for performing and my denser… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I came into music because I thought the presentation of poetry wasn't vibrant enough. So I merged improvised poetry with basic rock… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
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… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
What I wanted to do in rock 'n roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
My father hated rock and roll - hated it. My first real argument with my father was over the Rolling Stones. And… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
All the traumas I went through separating art from writing don't exist anymore. That's why I love being in rock 'n' roll.… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
Rock & roll is like a painting. Can great paintings still be done? It depends on who holds the brush. — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I always hesitate when people call me a musician.I have had no musical training. I can't play anything. I really think of… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
Everybody's got to reclaim these thingspoetry, rock'n'roll, political activismand it's got to be done over and over again. It's like eating: you… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
What I've always tried to do is to express the highest point of me, and rock 'n' roll is the first and… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
New generations have unprecedented power to make great changes. Take the music business for example. The new generations have toppled the music… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I was never a singer; I can't play any instruments; I had no training. Plus, I was brought up in a time… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I've embraced rock 'n' roll because it encompasses all the things I'm interested in: poetry, revolution, sexuality, political activism - all of… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
When I started making music, we'd lost a lot of our great people. Rock was moving in a direction I didn't like.… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I wanted to remember the original energy; strip away all the glamour and limousines and tons of drugs. I wanted to get… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I'm old-fashioned. I think William Blake and people in the Renaissance people were multi. Look at da Vinci, he was involved in… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
We imagined ourselves as the Sons of Liberty with a mission to preserve, protect, and project the revolutionary spirit of rock and… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
If I have any regrets, I could say that I'm sorry I wasn't a better writer or a better singer...When I was… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I don't have an image of myself, when I'm walking down the street, like I'm a rock star or something. I'm a… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
As much as I can, as much as I can afford, I keep ticket prices down. Rock 'n' roll was developed as… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
The best thing is to motivate people to do their own work. I'm not opposed to making money. But I started to… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
Technology is 50% of rock 'n' roll - the magic, the art, the performance. If you don't have good technicians and a… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I like making records right now 'cause I can express myself that way in a very immediate, physical sense. You can always… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
Why do people want to know exactly who I am? Am I a poet? Am I this or that? I've always made… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
Music television is all about the media-oriented version of what it is to be a rock star; it's not about what Bob… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
When I was a teenager, I dreamed of being an opera singer like Maria Callas or a jazz singer like June Christy… — Patti Smith Copy Share Image
I had a really happy childhood - my siblings were great, my mother was very fanciful, and I loved to read. But there was… — Patti Smith Copy Share
Sometimes [people] seem to think I came out of the womb, you know, cursing, with an electric guitar. — Patti Smith Copy Share
“Inside it he inscribed a few lines of poetry, portraying us as the gypsy and the fool, one creating silence; one listening closely to… — Patti Smith Copy Share
“I clawed through a thick web of the culture’s consciousness that I hadn’t known existed.” — Patti Smith Copy Share
Ultimately, we are not seeking others to bow to, but to reinforce our individual natures, to help us suffer our own choices, to guide… — Patti Smith Copy Share
If I'm taking a picture of Brancusi's grave, I know that there's something of him, of his mortal remains, beneath my feet, and there's… — Patti Smith Copy Share
I'm certain, as we filled down the great staircase, that I appeared the same as ever, a moping twelve years-old, all arms and legs.… — Patti Smith Copy Share
In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth. — Patti Smith Copy Share
New York is the thing that seduced me. New York is the thing that formed me. New York is the thing that deformed me.… — Patti Smith Copy Share
I don't wanna be equal with anybody. I wanna be above equal. I don't think most people are equal to me. I'd like to… — Patti Smith Copy Share
Somehow I started introducing writing into my drawings, and after a time, the language took over and I started getting very involved with the… — Patti Smith Copy Share
I'm okay with roaming around the world in my bunk for days on end. Maybe every third day I'll get a shower or stumble… — Patti Smith Copy Share
