Patti Smith quotes

Born
December 30, 1946, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Occupation
Singer, songwriter.

Patti Smith is an American singer-songwriter.

Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.
– Patti Smith

I’ve always thrived on the encouragement of others.
– Patti Smith

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.
– Patti Smith

I know I’m a strong performer. I’m not an evolved musician.
– Patti Smith

I just do my work, and I work every day, and my ambition is just to do something better than I last did.
– Patti Smith

Truthfully, I don’t really think of myself as a photographer. I don’t have all the disciplines and knowledge of a person who’s spent their life devoted to photography.
– Patti Smith

If I have any regrets, I could say that I’m sorry I wasn’t a better writer or a better singer.
– Patti Smith

If you feel good about who you are inside, it will radiate.
– Patti Smith

I like really hot coffee, not too strong.
– Patti Smith

An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.
– Patti Smith

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.
– Patti Smith

Rock n’ roll is dream soup, what’s your brand?
– Patti Smith

Bringing good news is imparting hope to one’s fellow man. The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times.
– Patti Smith

I’m not saying I wasn’t flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.
– Patti Smith

An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn’t know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.
– Patti Smith

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.
– Patti Smith

Mohammed personally mapped out seven heavens. If he got to seven, you know there’s more.
– Patti Smith

I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.
– Patti Smith

People came at me with all sorts of offers, wanting to make me into a hard-core Cher. I had no desire for any amount of money to be reformed for someone’s vision, because in the end, that’s what you got: your clay in someone else’s hands.
– Patti Smith

As I grew up, one of my strongest allies has been my sister.
– Patti Smith

Polaroid by its nature makes you frugal. You walk around with maybe two packs of film in your pocket. You have 20 shots, so each shot is a world.
– Patti Smith

Even as a child, I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to wear red lipstick.
– Patti Smith

If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s not to be so judgmental of other people.
– Patti Smith

My style says, ‘Look at me, don’t look at me.’
– Patti Smith

As far as I’m concerned, being any gender is a drag.
– Patti Smith

I personally am not interested in people trying to pigeonhole me.
– Patti Smith

The thing is that as you grow through life, the pursuit of art and the pursuit of new ideas, all these things keeps your mind elastic.
– Patti Smith

Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn’t serve anyone, and it’s painful. But if you transform it into remembrance, then you’re magnifying the person you lost and also giving something of that person to other people, so they can experience something of that person.
– Patti Smith

For everything bad, there’s a million really exciting things, whether it’s someone puts out a really great book, there’s a new movie, there’s a new detective, the sky is unbelievably golden, or you have the best cup of coffee you ever had in your life.
– Patti Smith

Maybe I’ll be 48 and die in the gutter in Paris.
– Patti Smith

I remember the first club we played in San Francisco. There were a lot of people on motorcycles standing around outside, and I had trouble getting in. I didn’t have any ID, and the guy at the door wouldn’t let me in, even though I told him I was gonna be singing in there.
– Patti Smith

Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a kid, I had a sailor shirt and the same old corduroy pants, and that’s what I wanted to wear everyday.
– Patti Smith

I remember when the Bic pen was controversial. They came from France. They were cheap, and when one was out of ink, you threw it away; you didn’t dip it into more ink.
– Patti Smith

A lot of children don’t have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even about cloth; I liked flannel and not polyester.
– Patti Smith