Quotessence
Home / Authors / Patti Smith
Patti Smith

Patti Smith Quotes

Singer-songwriter

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleThinkingArtistIfsRocksWritingWantArtChildrenKnowsWantedWorldRock N RollDreamYoungFilmMotherSometimesWayPersons

Famous Patti Smith Quotes

“I never had aspirations to go into politics or medicine. I always wanted to be an artist of some sort. I wasn't so politically motivated. I felt that the world from an early age was disappointing. My father taught me about the bomb, and it was eye-opening. From then on, I thought grown-ups needed to do a better job. I still think that.”

ThinkingWorldStillsEyeAgeWantedJobsArtistFatherFeltTaughtNeededMedicineOpeningAspirationBombsMotivatedDisappointingBetter JobsEye Opening
Author:Patti Smith
Create image

“We all make choices. Believe me, I would like to write the hit of the world. It's not like I have any desire to be in the shadows. My vision isn't marketing. Some people want to sell 6 million albums. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just not what I do. I'd rather look at a piece of work and say it's great rather than it's successful.”

PeopleWorldWantWritingBelieveLooksDesireChoicesVisionMillionsSuccessfulPiecesShadowSellsMarketingAlbumsBelieve In Me
Author:Patti Smith
Create image

“The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal realm. He must return to the material world in order to do his work. It's the artist's responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labor of creation.”

WorldArtistOrderResponsibilityCreationMaterialsCommunicationReturnBalanceLaborContactRealmsWorking ItMysticalIntuitiveSeductiveMaterial World
Author:Patti Smith
Create image

“Eyeing the traffic circulating the lobby hung with bad art. Big invasive stuff unloaded on Stanley Bard in exchange for rent. The hotel is an energetic, desperate haven for scores of gifted hustling children from every rung of the ladder. Guitar bums and stoned-out beauties in Victorian dresses. Junkie poets, playwrights, broke-down filmmakers, and French actors. Everybody passing through here is somebody, if not in the outside world.”

IfsWorldChildrenArtBigsActorsStuffHavensPoetDressesGuitarPassingPassingsBrokeFilmmakerDesperateScoreHotelHungTrafficGiftedLaddersPlaywrightEnergeticHustleOutside WorldJunkieVictorianStanleyPassing ThroughBards
Author:Patti Smith
Create image

“I wasn't attractive, I wasn't very verbal, I wasn't very smart in school. I wasn't anything that showed the world I was something special, but I had this tremendous hope all the time. I had this tremendous spirit that kept me going... I was a happy child, because I had this feeling that I was going to go beyond my body physical... I just knew it.”

WorldChildrenFeelingsBodySchoolSpiritSpecialSmartAttractiveSomething SpecialVery SmartHappy Children
Author:Patti Smith
Create image