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24 Patti Smith Quotes

Patti Smith shares sly musings on art, religion, and freedom.

Patti Smith quotes

  1. Americans just don't know what being a movie star's all about.

    #1
  2. An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.

    #2
  3. Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.

    #3
  4. Christianity made us think there's one heaven.

    #4
  5. Everyone thinks of God as a man - you can't help it - Santa Claus was a man, therefore God has to be a man.

    #5
  6. I always enjoyed doing transgender songs.

    #6
  7. I can't say I was a Rasta but I went through a period when I was studying all aspects of Rastafarianism, including smoking a lot of pot while reading the Bible!

    #7
  8. I have a daughter who's 11 years old. Maybe she'll grow up independent and really really heavy and become a movie star and she'll play me in my life story.

    #8
  9. I like gettin' old

    #9
  10. I look at these kids, you know, and I could be their mother, their mistress, their older woman. Some of the kids at the concerts are 15.

    #10
  11. I only planned it out till I was 28. I figured at 28, the black dress, the gutter in Paris, I had it - like a B movie of Piaf.

    #11
  12. In the period where I had to live the life of a citizen - a life where, like everybody else, I did tons of laundry and cleaned toilet bowls, changed hundreds of diapers and nursed children - I learned a lot.

    #12
  13. Let's just say that I think any person who aspires, presumes, or feels the calling to be an artist has a built-in sense of duty.

    #13
  14. Mohammed personally mapped out seven heavens. If he got to seven, you know there's more.

    #14
  15. No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist

    #15
  16. Somehow I started introducing writing into my drawings, and after a time, the language took over and I started getting very involved with the handwriting and then the look of the handwriting.

    #16
  17. When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep.

    #17
  18. Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire.

    #18
  19. 'Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)': Jesus died For somebody's sins But not mine

    #19
  20. 'Rock N Roll Nigger': Look around you, all around you Riding on a copper wave Do you like the world around you? Are you ready to behave?

    #20
  21. 'People Have the Power': People have the power To redeem the work of fools Upon the meek the graces shower It's decreed the people rule

    #21
  22. 'Land': Life is filled with holes Johnny's laying there in his sperm coffin The angel looks down at him and says 'Oh, pretty boy Can't you show me nothing but surrender?

    #22
  23. 'Babelogue': He spared the child and spoiled the rod I have not sold myself to God!

    #23
  24. She is a soldier. She will not be defeated.

    #24