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I don't think the average American understands what patriotism truthfully is. That's why when I attack our country or attack the government, it's sometimes looked at as unpatriotic. It's not.

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
Average
Looked
American
Government
Unpatriotic
Country
Truthfully
Sometimes
Understands
Think
Patriotism
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Attack

More quotes by Patti Smith

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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.
Patti Smith
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People say the media is feeding the public's hunger for celebrity news, but that's the drug pusher's mentality. I don't think anybody would be pining for news about Angelina Jolie's babies if it weren't being given to them in the first place.
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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.
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I knew if I lived long enough I would be poet laureate of something.
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Poetry is a solitary process. One does not write poetry for the masses. Poetry is a self-involved, lofty pursuit. Songs are for the people. When I'm writing a song, I imagine performing it. I imagine giving it. It's a different aspect of communication. It's for the people.
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I'm okay with roaming around the world in my bunk for days on end. Maybe every third day I'll get a shower or stumble out at dawn and realize I'm in a field in Poland. I like that kind of life.
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I always wrote like rock 'n' roll. And I always listen to rock 'n' roll as poetry.
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I don't wear makeup. I can't stand nothin' on my face. It's a phobia. It's not a platform.
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I have seen a lifetime of transgender people and it was hard enough being gay in the '50s and early '60s. One couldn't imagine the cruelty that trans people had to face back then.
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I realize that people need something to believe in.
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Truthfully, I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I don't have all the disciplines and knowledge of a person who's spent their life devoted to photography.
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As I grew up, one of my strongest allies has been my sister.
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What I wanted to do in rock'n'roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed so much to that were Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.
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All I've ever wanted, since I was a child, was to do something wonderful.
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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.
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I had a really happy childhood - my siblings were great, my mother was very fanciful, and I loved to read. But there was always financial strife.
Patti Smith
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If someone didn't want to be filmed, or my children said, Don't film me anymore, [Steven Sebring] didn't try to sneak a shot or cajole them he just respected their wishes.
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I was so horny in school it felt like my body was filled with electricity. I felt like I had neon bones or something.
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What a model of an artist was for me was an artist who worked. Picasso was the ultimate model, because the work ethic he had.
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I reflected on the fact that no matter how good I aspired to be, I was never going to achieve perfection
Patti Smith