Patti Quotes & Sayings

Besides me wanting to be an artist, I wanted to be a movie star. — Patti Smith

I grew up in an era where you had to find your own way as a woman. When I was a kid, there was this whole physical and emotional neatness and purity that a woman was supposed to have, and I didn't fit into that. — Patti Scialfa

All the traumas I went through separating art from writing don't exist anymore. That's why I love being in rock 'n' roll. It's a whole life thing. — Patti Smith

I was raised Jehovah's Witness. I was in Bible school at five or six years old, but I wouldn't say that we were a religious family. — Patti Smith

Well now," the dragon says to her in a voice like rolling thunder, "who are you really here to save? — Patti Larsen

I was a VP of marketing, I was regional sales manager in fashion, and marketing director in communications and product development. I was always a corporate Fortune 500 girl. — Patti Stanger

I always wanted to be an artist, writer and poet since I was seven, and one has to live long enough to evolve as an artist and do one's finest work. — Patti Smith

Inside it he inscribed a few lines of poetry, portraying us as the gypsy and the fool, one creating silence; one listening closely to the silence. In the clanging twirl of our lives, these roles would reverse many times — Patti Smith

Christianity made us think there's one heaven. — Patti Smith

I don't find R.E.M. to be nihilistic. There is a constant undertone of joyous optimism. I'm not going to kill myself to Patti Smith or R.E.M. — Michael Stipe

When I was a teenager, I had trouble getting a boyfriend, so I imagined Arthur Rimbaud or Bob Dylan as my boyfriend. — Patti Smith

That whole thing about masturbating. Most girls, I guess nobody has to tell them, they just figure it out. I had to be told. Some girl actually had to show me a hairbrush and demonstrate exactly what to do. I just never figured that stuff out naturally. — Patti Smith

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out. — Patti LaBelle

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

Even if the abuse happened years ago, writing about it and telling someone about it can make all the difference to how you feel inside. I can assure you that telling will help you feel better. It is never to late to tell your story and begin to heal your wounds. Find the right person to trust and tell. — Patti Feuereisen

Successful men don't date up. They are intimidated by wealthy women unless they are blue bloods. Successful men want to always take care of their women, and that means financially. — Patti Stanger

There was an air of vague and unsettling paranoia, an undercurrent of rumors, snatched fragments of conversation anticipating future revolution. — Patti Smith

We're all getting plastic surgery. Come on, this is the game here, and HDTV exaggerates all the features. Yeah, I'm proud of it, because we're all doing it. Nobody's talking about it. — Patti Stanger

This great world of ours is the looking-glass in which we must gaze to come to know ourselves from the right slant. Michel de Montaigne — Patti Miller

When I was a child, our summer days were spent swimming; chlorine in my hair was like perfume to me. — Patti Davis

I love what I do, and I love the audience, and I love the fact that I get to do it, and I love, I love our craft very, very, much, and it's a noble craft. We have a responsibility to it, and to the audience, and to the playwright, and to the message. I won't ever care less. — Patti LuPone

You'll let him talk you out of your dreams. That's what love does sometimes- talks you out of your dreams." "Not me," Katie said. "Jack would talk me into my dreams. — Patti Callahan Henry

Decades later I would look into my father's eyes and try to reach past the murkiness of Alzheimer's with my words, my apology, hoping that in his heart he heard me and understood. — Patti Davis

You come to the city, and you have a chance to find out who you really are. — Patti Scialfa

Some people, when they die, leave so much life behind that we wonder how they did it. — Patti Davis

I'm not a critic. I'm not a journalist. I'm not a philosopher. Arguing that punk has run its course is like saying painting ran its course after the Renaissance. Punk is an idea. It's freedom. And it'll be around 200 years from now for the people who want it. — Patti Smith

The issue of gender was never my biggest concern; my biggest concern was doing good work. When the feminist movement really got going, I wasn't an active part of it because I was more concerned with my own mental pursuits. — Patti Smith

I like having the space of my own project. — Patti Scialfa

My mother loved rock and roll. She loved high-energy music. — Patti Smith

A real prison breakfast" I said.
"Yeah, but we are free."
And that summed it up. — Patti Smith

And that is the choice everyone has. They can wish for what they want in their life or they can face the truth. But sometimes you cant have both. — Patti Callahan Henry

I like Patti Smith's lyrics, and sometimes think I could be influenced by them. But she has a kind of cool that's beyond me. — Alice Oswald

I was so horny in school it felt like my body was filled with electricity. I felt like I had neon bones or something. — Patti Smith

For writing, I get up early in the morning - 5 o'clock, 4:30. I'm a morning person ... So I try to do it while people are asleep. The mornings are the nicest. — Patti Scialfa

each possessed something the other wanted and, in that way, complemented the other. — Patti Smith

Everything here is a small offense and not of value as art or confession. It is not a whim. It is an attempt to peel another putrid skin. — Patti Smith

I was attracted to Robert's work because his visual vocabulary was akin to my poetic one, even if we seemed to be moving toward different destinations. Robert always would tell me, "Nothing is finished until you see it. — Patti Smith

I think that my father would find it so confusing that people want to imitate him. Not because he didn't have confidence in who he was, but because he never imitated anybody. He was his own person. — Patti Davis

I've always considered myself a writer. — Patti Smith

When I look into the crowd, I see young and old, black and white - it's amazing that I'm able to connect with so many different kinds of people. — Patti LaBelle

When my father, Ronald Reagan, was running for president in 1980, my mother, Nancy, traveled with him on the campaign trail, but she did not give speeches or even many interviews. She never stood in front of a group of reporters and expounded on her views and opinions. — Patti Davis

[Columbia House] magazines were how I found out about the punk world going on in New York. Because of what I read, at the age of 15, I hounded the local record store to order a copy of Horses [1975] for me by Patti Smith. — Michael Stipe

I was such a punk. — Patti Davis

You're not a rock n' roll person four hours a day or even when you're on stage. It's become the rhythm of your whole life. — Patti Smith

I have a gift. I just know what I'm doing. — Patti Stanger

I was never going to become anything but myself, that i was of the clan of Peter Pan and we did not grow up — Patti Smith

I knew when I was a kid that I had a Broadway voice. I wanted to be a rocker, because I grew up in that era of transistor radios at the beach. — Patti LuPone

When I was a kid, I loved Sherlock Holmes. I'm not interested in crimes. I'm interested in the mind of the detective and his process, which to me is a lot like the artist. — Patti Smith

A lot of children don't have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even about cloth; I liked flannel and not polyester. — Patti Smith

I was a sickly child, not very strong physically. I wasn't really the greatest in school. I didn't really excel in anything particularly. But I was happy with who I was. — Patti Smith

I was a kid from Oklahoma who never wanted to be a singer, but was told I could sing. And things snowballed. — Patti Page

I understand that if you have never suffered a broken heart, then you have never really known what it is to truly be alive. And I understand that at that precise moment, when your heart breaks open, that all you want to do is lay down and die! Because you know that is the only way the pain is ever going to stop. — Patti Roberts

Said good-bye to my corner. - What will happen to the tables and chairs? I asked. — Patti Smith

I knew he didn't love me, but I adored him anyway. — Patti Smith

Artists, musicians, scientists - if you have any kind of visionary aptitude, it's often something that you don't have a choice in. You have to do it. — Patti Smith

For a time Robert protected me, then was dependent on me, and then possessive of me. His transformation was the rose of Genet, and he was pierced deeply by his blooming. — Patti Smith

We can either own our circumstances and be creative in them, or we can throw up our hands and say, I cannot be held accountable because the conditions are not ideal. — Patti Digh

Many a false step is made standing still. — Patti LaBelle

your abuser tried to map your life for you. But he does not own you, and you have the freedom and the power to overcome and transcend the (negative) associations. You deserve to be happy, to be free of any feelings of shame or guilt or fear. You have the right to a completely satisfying sexual life. You are a righteous young woman. If you can get in touch with the feelings and consciously change the awful associations, you can re-map your life. — Patti Feuereisen

Light inspires me. I'm drawn to architecture, often graves, statues, trees - things usually that are quite still. I've been taking pictures continuously since 1995 until the end of Polaroid film. I'm taking very few pictures nowadays because I have very little film left, most of it expired. — Patti Smith

After September 11, I got to understand a little bit of his deep love for this country. — Patti Davis

We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves. — Patti Smith

We never threw a record together. Each record was done really seriously, as if our life depended on it. — Patti Smith

In the gay world, [relationships] will always be open. There is no curbing the gay man. — Patti Stanger

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

Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe, love is a banquet on which we feed. — Patti Smith

It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward. — Patti Davis

The thing is that as you grow through life, the pursuit of art and the pursuit of new ideas, all these things keeps your mind elastic. — Patti Smith

[On her father, Ronald Reagan:] How do you argue with someone who states that the people who are sleeping on the grates of the streets of America 'are homeless by choice'? — Patti Davis

With any long-term relationship, you have good days and bad days. — Patti Scialfa

When I perform I always opt for communication with God and in pursuit of communicating with God you can fall into some very dangerous territory. I have also come to realize that total communication with God is physical death. — Patti Smith

I wasn't attractive, I wasn't very verbal, I wasn't very smart in school. I wasn't anything that showed the world I was something special, but I had this tremendous hope all the time. I had this tremendous spirit that kept me going ... I was a happy child, because I had this feeling that I was going to go beyond my body physical ... I just knew it. — Patti Smith

'M Train' is as close to knowing what I'm like as anything. I don't know exactly what the book is about. All and nothing, I suppose. — Patti Smith

I would rather write or record something great and have it overlooked than do mediocre work and have it be popular. — Patti Smith

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

I've lost many, many friends through natural causes, through alcohol, through drugs, through AIDS. And every time I lose a friend or a loved one, it reminds me how great life is. — Patti Smith

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. — Patti Smith

Anxious for some permanency, I guess I needed to be reminded how temporal permanency is. — Patti Smith

You drive past your old high school, and even if everybody treated you terribly, you still go take a look, don't you? — Patti Scialfa

I get irritated with the world. I get irritated with politicians. I get very irritated with governments and with corporations, but in terms of imagination - my imagination is always fertile. I'm either thinking of my own things or constantly engaged by the things that other people do. — Patti Smith

Boredom is for the selfish. — Patti Digh

Create inclusion - with simple mindfulness that others might have a different reality from your own. — Patti Digh

There were no ashtrays and no sign of my philosophic cowpoke. I sensed he had been heading this way and most likely, spotting the spanking new paint job, just kept on going. I looked around. Nothing to hold me here, either, not even the dried carcass of a dead bee. — Patti Smith

We need a new cosmology. New gods. New sacraments. Another drink. — Patti Smith

The politics at Max's were very similar to high school, except the popular people were not the cheerleaders or football heroes and the prom queen would most certainly e a he, dressed as a she, knowing more about being a she than most she's. — Patti Smith

There's a part of me that wishes I could go out in T-shirt and jeans, 'cause I really love Patti Smith, Cat Power, girls who look so casual; that appeals to me 'cause I guess it's the opposite from what I do. But I can never let myself just do that - I always have to try and dress up and create something. — Bat For Lashes

A lot of Hollywood couples get married young and wind up growing out of their relationship. — Patti Stanger

Hail brother, the distant thunder is nothing but hearts beating as one. — Patti Smith

We weathered all things, large and small, with the same vigor. — Patti Smith

We didn't have the phrase 'style icon' when I was young, but I have to say, I really copied Bob Dylan when I was younger: a little bit of Bob Dylan or a lot of Bob Dylan and the French symbolist poets - I liked how they dressed - and Catholic school boys. — Patti Smith

I had to find a diet that would kick me back into dating shape, because I know that I can't date at size 8. I have to date at size 2. And it's just a fact of nature. Go get your injections and your chemical peels. You gotta look good to attract a man. — Patti Stanger

I don't know about that. I'm not a very analytical person. I have various impulses. I've often quoted Walt Whitman's phrase "I contain multitudes." I understand that. — Patti Smith

We wanted, it seemed, what we already had, a lover and a friend to create with, side by side. To be loyal, yet be free. — Patti Smith

Story is a way to find grace in the chaos. — Patti Callahan Henry

To be an artist is to enter into competition with god. — Patti Smith

Everyone thinks of God as a man - you can't help it - Santa Claus was a man, therefore God has to be a man. — Patti Smith

The memories stayed with him for so long, and stayed vivid. And it didn't matter to me that he'd already repeated that before. I could hear it forever. — Patti Davis

In the period where I had to live the life of a citizen - a life where, like everybody else, I did tons of laundry and cleaned toilet bowls, changed hundreds of diapers and nursed children - I learned a lot. — Patti Smith

I don't know why, the very first word on my very first record is 'Jesus.' I still invoke him as an entity to reckon with. — Patti Smith

I had this idea that the coolest thing that could happen to you was talking with God. My father was always talking about God, and I idolized my father, so I'd spend hours trying to have mental telepathy with God. — Patti Smith