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My parents had three kids right after the Second World War, and we were all sort of sickly. Then I had a fourth sibling, with very serious asthma. The medical bills... So my parents always struggled.

Patti Smith

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Patti Smith
Age: 78
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
World
Serious
Asthma
Parent
Struggled
Sort
Sibling
War
Fourth
Three
Medical
Kids
Bills
Right
Parents
Always
Second
Sickly

More quotes by Patti Smith

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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.
Patti Smith
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It will not fall away. Man cannot judge it. For art sings of God, and ultimately belongs to Him.
Patti Smith
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Some of us are born rebellious. Like Jean Genet or Arthur Rimbaud, I roam these mean streets like a villain, a vagabond, an outcast, scavenging for the scraps that may perchance plummet off humanity's dirty plates, though often sometimes taking a cab to a restaurant is more convenient.
Patti Smith
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I got my style from a lot of different people, even my style of reading, even Johnny Carson inspired me.
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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I'm from South Jersey: The idea of eating a roll with olive oil and anchovies or some kind of sardine and drinking mint tea definitely comes from reading Paul Bowles.
Patti Smith
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I was like one of the boys in school who flap their legs frantically under the desk. I always had this weird feeling between my legs and I had no idea what it was. I didn't know girls masturbated. I never touched myself or anything.
Patti Smith
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One thing I like about getting older is things, your spectrum widens, your capacity for compassion widens.
Patti Smith
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Robert was concerned with how to make the photograph, and I with how to be the photograph.
Patti Smith
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I'm a total failure at housewifery. I always have been, 'cause I daydream too much. If I start doing the dishes at one in the afternoon, I'll still be there at six in the evening.
Patti Smith
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I was always trying to pick guys up. I'd ask guys out and stuff like that. I had no pride. I was the biggest lurch at dances, waiting for the ladies' choice. I'd lunge at my prey like a baby wolf.
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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You can't carve up the world. It's not a pie.
Patti Smith
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Sometimes I get lost in watching a film. The sorrow, or the frustration, is when it doesn't happen for a long time.
Patti Smith
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As I grew up, one of my strongest allies has been my sister.
Patti Smith
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I walk alone, assaulted it seems, by tears from heaven.
Patti Smith
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Often the simplest song is the hardest to write.
Patti Smith
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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
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I just like living in certain atmospheres. Or I just like people as they are.
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To be an artist — actually, to be a human being in these times — it’s all difficult. … What matters is to know what you want and pursue it.
Patti Smith