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Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.

Patti Smith

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Patti Smith
Age: 77
Born: 1946
Born: December 30
Composer
Drawer
Guitarist
Human Rights Activist
Musician
Photographer
Poet
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Visual Artist
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Patricia Lee Smith
Labels
Artists
Artist
Resistant
Traditionally

More quotes by Patti Smith

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My mother answers all my fan mail.
Patti Smith
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I've always thrived on the encouragement of others.
Patti Smith
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I love being alive. I like being a human being.
Patti Smith
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I don't feel that censorship keeps me from doing the work, though. I'm my bigger censor.
Patti Smith
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We believe we will raise the sky, we got to fly over the land, over the sea. Fate unwinds and if we die, souls arise. God, do not seize me please.
Patti Smith
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My mother had no end of tragedy in her life. She would make herself get up and take a deep breath and go out and do laundry. Hang up sheets.
Patti Smith
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Art is by nature optimistic. Art is optimistic because it is alive.
Patti Smith
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When I was a teenager, I dreamed of being an opera singer like Maria Callas or a jazz singer like June Christy or Chris Connor, or approaching songs with the kind of mystical lethargy of Billie Holiday, or championing the downtrodden like Lotte Lenya. But I never dreamed of singing in a rock-and-roll band.
Patti Smith
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My public life was so demanding that I wasn't doing the things that I deemed the most important.
Patti Smith
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If I'm really working on something, writing or painting or really concentrating, I don't even think about brushing my hair.
Patti Smith
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We tried not to age, but time had its rage.
Patti Smith
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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
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Nothing is a hobby - each discipline is its own world with its own high standards. Of course, every artist has 'minor works' that they do, but I don't think I have any 'minor disciplines.'
Patti Smith
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I walk alone, assaulted it seems, by tears from heaven.
Patti Smith
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My father came a couple of times, but he always blamed his hearing loss on my loud amplifiers. So he didn't come anymore, but I had his support.
Patti Smith
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I'm right here right now and I want now to be the Golden Age ...if only each generation would realize that the time for greatness is right now when they're alive ... the time to flower is now.
Patti Smith
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My mission is to communicate, to wake people up, just to give them my energy and accept theirs.
Patti Smith
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The two things that constantly inspired me were books and travel.
Patti Smith
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When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep.
Patti Smith
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I really don't want somebody writing something positive about me if they don't believe in it. I'd rather somebody write something real mean. I like reading bad stuff, it gets me excited. In fact, the only reviews I keep are the bad ones 'cause I think they're the cool ones.
Patti Smith