I’m a human being, I’m a friend, I’m a mom, I’m a writer, and I’m an artist. I do play electric guitar and all of that, but in the end, I’m just a person. – Patti Smith
We have such a great depth of human history in all of the arts, whether it’s opera or mathematics or painting or classical music or jazz. There’s so many things to study, new books to read, and certainly always ways to transform old ideas and to come up with new ones. – Patti Smith
Music television is all about the media-oriented version of what it is to be a rock star; it’s not about what Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix were about – which included great images, sure, but they had spiritual and political and revolutionary content, too. – Patti Smith
I’m an intuitive musician. I have no real technical skills. I can only play six chords on the guitar. – Patti Smith
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. – Patti Smith
I get irritated with the world. I get irritated with politicians. I get very irritated with governments and with corporations, but in terms of imagination – my imagination is always fertile. I’m either thinking of my own things or constantly engaged by the things that other people do. – Patti Smith
I’ve said this over and over, but I’ll say it a million more times – I’m concerned more about the death of a bee than I am about terrorism. Because we’re losing hives and bees by the millions because of such strong pesticides. – Patti Smith
New York is a great city. There is no question of that. It’s such a diverse city. I’ve walked down the city and heard four or five different languages simultaneously. I think that’s beautiful. – Patti Smith
What a model of an artist was for me was an artist who worked. Picasso was the ultimate model, because the work ethic he had. – Patti Smith
I didn’t know Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse, but I was affected by both of their deaths because I admired their work so much and mourned their youth and work they would never produce. – Patti Smith
More than anything, that’s been the thread through my life – the desire to write, the impulse to write. I mean, it’s taken me other places, but it was the impulse to write that led me to singing. – Patti Smith
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. – Patti Smith
Why do people want to know exactly who I am? Am I a poet? Am I this or that? I’ve always made people wary. First they called me a rock poet. Then I was a poet that dabbled in rock. Then I was a rock person who dabbled in art. – Patti Smith
If your label won’t let you have the cover you want or sing the songs you want, then leave! – Patti Smith
It’s not that I have compromised or anything, but it’s always been important to me to take good care of myself and be a good example. I’m not much a role model in terms of hair care, though. – Patti Smith
Robert Mapplethorpe asked me to write our story the day before he died. I had never written a book of nonfiction, and so it took me almost two decades to write that book. – Patti Smith
I don’t believe people playing rock n’ roll should have crowns. We’re not kings and queens. Anybody can play it. – Patti Smith
There is hardly a place in New York that you can’t walk a block and a half and get a cup of coffee. Believe me, I’ve been all over the world. There’s no place like that but New York City. – Patti Smith
I have bigger concerns than what pop stars are doing. I’m more concerned about our environment, what industrialists are doing to it. – Patti Smith
I would rather write or record something great and have it overlooked than do mediocre work and have it be popular. – Patti Smith