Quote

My father hated rock and roll - hated it. My first real argument with my father was over the Rolling Stones. And he never, ever liked rock and roll. He just liked me.

Patti Smith

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Firsts
Hated
First
Liked
Real
Stones
Never
Argument
Rock
Rocks
Father
Rolling
Ever
Roll

More quotes by Patti Smith

Image
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
Image
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
Image
I didn't have any career design. I was not thinking about publishing or doing a record. I was just working. I was evolving. I wanted to really comprehend what I was doing before stepping too far out.
Patti Smith
Image
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.
Patti Smith
Image
Spare the child and spoil the rod, I am not sellin' myself to god.
Patti Smith
Image
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.
Patti Smith
Image
I'm an artist. I'm interested in how art gets made.
Patti Smith
Image
Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.
Patti Smith
Image
I never felt oppressed because of my gender. When I'm writing a poem or drawing, I'm not a female I'm an artist.
Patti Smith
Image
I got over the loss of his desk and chair, but never the desire to produce a string of words more precious than the emeralds of Cortés.
Patti Smith
Image
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.
Patti Smith
Image
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.
Patti Smith
Image
Words are just rules and regulations to me.
Patti Smith
Image
I studied the Bible seriously until I was young teenager. It was always part of our home education: talking about the Bible, arguing about the Bible, interpreting it. So I don't connect prayer or scriptures with any particular religion so it's not a contradiction in my life.
Patti Smith
Image
I can't bear working with a click track, we're not click track people. But for Mercy Is ... we all got in one mind because the song is delicate it's not a song that showcases a vocal or some virtuoso.
Patti Smith
Image
John Coltrane, he talks to god. He starts playing his solo, he might play for 14 minutes. For 14 minutes, it seems like he's talking to god, but he always takes a hold of the melody.
Patti Smith
Image
When I was a teenager, I had trouble getting a boyfriend, so I imagined Arthur Rimbaud or Bob Dylan as my boyfriend.
Patti Smith
Image
Even as a child, I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want to wear red lipstick.
Patti Smith
Image
The thing I've always liked about performing is that I decide what I want to wear, whether I want to comb my hair.
Patti Smith
Image
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