870 Quotes by Patti Smith

I think I’m constantly in a state of adjustment.

Then I read Little Women, and of course, like a lot of really young girls, I was very taken with Jo – Jo being the writer and the misfit.

People like beauty and purity. They pretend that’s what it’s all about.

I don’t think the average American understands what patriotism truthfully is. That’s why when I attack our country or attack the government, it’s sometimes looked at as unpatriotic. It’s not.

I’d never had people drive me around, and then all of a sudden, if a car didn’t come, I’d say, “Where’s my car?”

We seek to stay present, even as the ghosts attempt to draw us away.

Nothing is ever solved, Solving is an illusion. There are moments of spontaneous brightness, when the mind appears emancipated, but this is more epiphany.

We feared that the music which had given us sustenance was in danger of spiritual starvation. We feared it losing its sense of purpose, we feared it falling into fattened hands, we feared it floundering in a mire of spectacle, finance, and vapid technical complexity. We would call forth in our minds the image of Paul Revere, riding through the American night, petitioning the people to wake up, to take up arms. We too would take up arms, the arms of our generation, the electric guitar and the microphone.

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