870 Quotes by Patti Smith

My father was a dreamy fellow – he read Plato and Socrates and watched Phillies games.

In 1974, when I started working with the material that became ‘Horses,’ a lot of our great voices had died. We’d lost Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, and people like Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Why is it that we lose the things we love, and things cavalier cling to us and will be the measure of our worth after we’re gone?

One of my great goals when I first started taking photographs or showing them publicly is that people might want one for over their desk. That’s my goal.

By the time I was 10 or 11, I was completely demoralized. I thought, “I’m done. I’m never going to be a missionary,” because my indiscretion column, whether it was little lies or stealing a Chunky bar, kept me from sainthood.

Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work. And make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.

The things I thought would happen didn’t. Things I never anticipated unfolded.

I’m not really a musician. I’m a performer and I love rock ‘n’ roll.

I always wrote like rock ‘n’ roll. And I always listen to rock ‘n’ roll as poetry.