I think it's important for people to realize that we were all young, all naive, and also we had lived in a time that had magic. Patti Smith More Quotes by Patti Smith More Quotes From Patti Smith Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply. Patti Smith awake pursuit writing We used to laugh at our small selves, saying that I was a bad girl trying to be good and that he was a good boy trying to be bad. Through the years these roles would reverse, then reverse again, until we came to accept our dual natures. We contained opposing principles, light and dark. Patti Smith girl dark boys I'm here right now and I want now to be the greatest time. Patti Smith right-now want A writer, or any artist, can’t expect to be embraced by the people [but] you just keep doing your work - because you have to, because it’s your calling. Patti Smith artist calling people Most women writers don't interest me because they're hung up with being a woman, they're hung up with being Jewish, they're hung up with being somebody or other. Rather than just going, just spurting, just creating. Patti Smith being-a-woman creating interest Rock n' roll is dream soup, what's your brand? Patti Smith rocks soup dream In the war of magic and religion, is magic ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer. Patti Smith humility prayer war The people have the power to redeem the work of fools. Upon the meek the graces shower, it's decreed the people rule. Patti Smith fool grace people I always thought my father [influenced me most] because he was so well read, I tried to model myself on him, but really as I go through life I realise it was my mother who gave me the most valuable instructions. I didn't understand or accept it at the time. She taught me to read and to pray - two things that have really stayed with me. Patti Smith mother two father As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag. Patti Smith gender drag sex I don't know about that. I'm not a very analytical person. I have various impulses. I've often quoted Walt Whitman's phrase "I contain multitudes." I understand that. Patti Smith walt impulse phrases The moment of creative impulse is what an artist gives you. You look at a Pollock, and it can't give you the tools to do a painting like that yourself, but in doing the work, Pollock shares with you the moment of creative impulse that drove him to do that work. Patti Smith creative artist giving Love is an angel disguised as lust. Patti Smith angel lust love My small torrent of words dissipated into an elaborate sense of expanding and receding. It was my entrance into the radiance of imagination. This process was especially magnified within the fevers of influenza, measles, chickenpox, and mumps. I got them all and with each I was privileged with a new level of awareness. Lying deep within myself, the symmetry of a snowflake spinning above me, intensifying through my lids, I seized a most worthy souvenir, a shard of heaven’s kaleidoscope. Patti Smith imagination heaven lying Even as a child, I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want to wear red lipstick. Patti Smith red-lipstick want children When I'm on my own with my camera, taking these pictures, it feels as if I am in a room of my own, a self-contained world. Patti Smith cameras self world I felt alien my whole life but I didn't feel alien because of my gender. Other people made me aware of my gender. Patti Smith gender aliens people For me, personally, I think drugs are sacred and should be used for work. That's what I believe in. Drugs have a real shamanistic value. I can handle drugs. I've never had a problem. Patti Smith real believe thinking What I've always tried to do is to express the highest point of me, and rock 'n' roll is the first and the most open form created by our generation. The cool thing about it is that you get the power, you get the rhythm; you can be taken over sexually, you can be taken over cerebrally; it's great to look at - it's a package deal. Patti Smith our-generation rocks taken These are the times, the times of our own, these are the shapes the world we formed. Patti Smith shapes philosophy world
