Quote

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

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
Song
Singers
Chris
Christy
Kind
Roll
June
Callas
Never
Jazz
Mystical
Billie
Like
Rock
Dreamed
Maria
Rocks
Singer
Lethargy
Singing
Opera
Connor
Songs
Holiday
Downtrodden
Band
Teenager
Approaching
Championing

More quotes by Patti Smith

Image
It will not fall away. Man cannot judge it. For art sings of God, and ultimately belongs to Him.
Patti Smith
Image
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.
Patti Smith
Image
I believe myself to be an artist. That was my calling, to do my work, and what's most important to me is to do the best work I possibly can. And that is what means the most, that is what will endure.
Patti Smith
Image
We tried not to age, but time had its rage.
Patti Smith
Image
I love being alive. I like being a human being.
Patti Smith
Image
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.
Patti Smith
Image
If you over-plan, you close the door on possibilities.
Patti Smith
Image
The film [Dream of Life] is the way it is because it was the rhythm of my life, and also because the director and the editor are both gifted and both fine human beings.
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
I think really that's just the basic Christian lesson that sometimes takes us years and years to understand - have equal concern for another human being as you have for yourself or perhaps even more concern for another human being than you have for yourself.
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
Ultimately, I want to make everyone horny.
Patti Smith
Image
The sea is greater than us - it has its rhythm, its art. It comes with our earliest memory, of respiration, breathing in and out.
Patti Smith
Image
I worked for Hillary [Clinton] when I was young - when she was running for the Senate. I was fundraising and things, I see all of these people as political in a way that isn't humanistic. I'm just watching and hoping that someone is going to distinguish himself or herself as comprehending what we need.
Patti Smith
Image
We were walking toward the fountain, the epicenter of activity, when an older couple stopped and openly observed us. Robert enjoyed being noticed, and he affectionately squeezed my hand. oh, take their picture, said the woman to her bemused husband, I think they're artists. Oh, go on, he shrugged. They're just kids.
Patti Smith
Image
I never really wanted to be a singer - not with any longevity. But I always wanted to be a writer.
Patti Smith
Image
Talking to god and coming back because that's what we have to do. That's your responsibility as a director, as an artist, as a performer. Your responsibility is back again to your people.
Patti Smith
Image
We're a culture more than ever that wants proof of everything, we want things fast, and someone sends you an email, you want to answer in five minutes. We have to allow ourselves nothingness, in our relationships too.
Patti Smith
Image
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
Image
People like beauty and purity. They pretend that's what it's all about.
Patti Smith