Patti Smith

I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth

We learned we wanted too much. We could only give from the perspective of who we were and what we had. Apart, we were able to see with even greater clarity that we didn’t want to be without each other.

Patti, did art get us?' I looked away, not really wanting to think about it. 'I don't know, Robert. I don't know.' Perhaps it did, but no one could regret that. Only a fool would regret being had by art; or a saint.

Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply.

I immersed myself in books and rock 'n' roll, the adolescent salvation.

I thought to myself that he contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.

Life isn't some vertical or horizontal line -- you have your own interior world, and it's not neat.

I'm right here right now and I want now to be the Golden Age ...if only each generation would realize that the time for greatness is right now when they're alive ... the time to flower is now.

I don't consider writing a quiet, closet act._x000D_ I consider it a real physical act._x000D_ When I'm home writing on the typewriter, I go crazy._x000D_ I move like a monkey._x000D_ I've wet myself, I've come in my pants writing.

It will not fall away. Man cannot judge it. For art sings of God, and ultimately belongs to Him.

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.

Art is by nature optimistic. Art is optimistic because it is alive.

Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don't abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.

We tried not to age, but time had its rage.

What I really like is an intelligent review. It doesn't have to be positive. A review that has some kind of insight, and sometimes people say something that's startling or is so poignant.

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.

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.

The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times.

An artist wears his work in place of wounds.

As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag.

An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.