Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words. by Patti Smith

Freedom is...the right to write the wrong words.

Patti Smith

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I don't consider writing a quiet, closet act. by Patti Smith

I don't consider writing a quiet, closet act.

crazy real moving

We tried not to age, but time had its rage. by Patti Smith

We tried not to age, but time had its rage.

60th-birthday age birthday

I’m not much a role model in terms of hair care, though. by Patti Smith

I’m not much a role model in terms of hair care, though.

role-models roles hair

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.

drawing writing looks

Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably crashes like a house of cards and you have to rebuild it. It's not like you get to a point where you're all right for the rest of your life.

house-of-cards three years

Lets 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.

artist calling thinking

I find it painful when I'm without anything. But I work in multiple fields. If I can't write, I find myself taking photographs. I can go on the road and perform. But the most important thing for me is writing, and when I hit those walls, it's painful.

wall important writing

Patti, did art get us?' I looked away, not really wanting to think about it. 'I don't know, Robert. I don't know.' Perhaps it did, but no one could regret that. Only a fool would regret being had by art; or a saint.

regret art thinking

Robert was concerned with how to make the photograph, and I with... by Patti Smith

Robert was concerned with how to make the photograph, and I with how to be the photograph.

concerned photograph

Much has been said about Robert, and more will be added. Young men will adopt his gait. Young girls will wear white dresses and mourn his curls. He will be condemned and adored. His excesses damned or romanticized. In the end, truth will be found in his work, the corporeal body of the artist. It will not fall away. Man cannot judge it. For art sings of God, and ultimately belongs to him.

girl art fall

I imagined myself as Frida to Diego, both muse and maker. I dreamed of meeting an artist to love and support and work with side by side.

support artist sides

Within that moment was trust, compassion, and our mutual sense of irony. He was carrying death within him and I was carrying life. We were both aware of that, I know.

irony moments compassion

I wish I could just project everything on the paper. by Patti Smith

I wish I could just project everything on the paper.

projects paper wish

Finally, by the sea, where God is everywhere, I gradually calmed. by Patti Smith

Finally, by the sea, where God is everywhere, I gradually calmed.

sea

We never had any children," he said ruefully. "Our work was our c... by Patti Smith

We never had any children," he said ruefully. "Our work was our children.

our-children said children

It was like being at an Arabian hoedown with a band of psychedeli... by Patti Smith

It was like being at an Arabian hoedown with a band of psychedelic hillbillies (p. 171).

arabian psychedelic band

Words are just rules and regulations to me. by Patti Smith

Words are just rules and regulations to me.

regulation rules-and-regulations philosophy

We learned we wanted too much. We could only give from the perspective of who we were and what we had. Apart, we were able to see with even greater clarity that we didn’t want to be without each other.

perspective want giving

So my last image was as the first. A sleeping youth cloaked in light, who opened his eyes with a smile of recognition for someone who had never been a stranger.

light eye sleep

Everything distracted me, but most of all myself. by Patti Smith

Everything distracted me, but most of all myself.

distracted