Patti Smith Quotes about Music

Patti Smith is a famous American born musician, songwriter, poet, singer and writer. She is best known for her punk rock performances and her poetry. Popular Patti Smith albums include “Horses”, “Dream of Life”, “Banga”, “Peace and Noise”, “Easter”, “Gung Ho”, “Gone Again”, “Radio Ethiopia”, and “Twelve”.

Mini biography: Born Patricia Lee Smith on the 30th of December, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. Her mother Beverly Smith was a waitress and her father Grant Smith was a factory worker. Smith had a relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in her youth. She married the guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith in 1980 and they had two children together: Jackson and Jesse. Her husband died in 1994 at the age of 46.

List of Famous Patti Smith Music Quotes

I would never call artistic expression a big ball of fun. Whoever said that it is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration was exactly right. It’s work. Patti Smith

All the same wonderful and embarrassing things that can happen in life can happen on stage, and you have to face them all with equal humor. You can’t think you’re a god or a queen because you have great moments, and you can’t think you’re a failure because you have terrible moments. Patti Smith

There’s nothing I love more than books. I’ve written some and I’m really happy with them but I just want to write at least one that I feel deserves to be in the canon of books to endure. I basically want to write something as good as Pinocchio and, yes, I’ve started it. Patti Smith

I seem to have walked with such strife and tragedy on one hand and such wondrous luck and beauty on the other. Patti Smith

I’m going to be 70 soon. And I know I can’t sing like Amy Winehouse or Rihanna. I can’t rely on that physical beauty or certain things that you have when you’re young. But what I can rely on is that, when I go on stage, I am only there for one reason and that’s to communicate with the people. I don’t have any wishes for myself. I don’t care about career. I already have a place, and a good name … there’s nothing that I really want, except for us all to experience something together. Patti Smith

The people that I am drawn to, whether it’s John Coltrane or Jimi Hendrix, it’s always their work. Always. Yes, perhaps Jimi Hendrix was beautiful and it would be easy to be drawn to him just because he was beautiful; but I was really drawn to him for his powers, for his philosophy, for his humanistic approach to art. Patti Smith

Robert took areas of dark human consent and made them into art. He worked without apology, investing the homosexual with grandeur, masculinity, and enviable nobility. Without affectation, he created a presence that was wholly male without sacrificing feminine grace. He was not looking to make a political statement or an announcement of his evolving sexual persuasion. He was presenting something new, something not seen or explored as he saw and explored it. Robert sought to elevate aspects of male experience, to imbue homosexuality with mysticism. Patti Smith

My politics are really simple: I’m not politically bent but I am Earth-bent, I am humanity-bent. I’m very concerned about the human condition. But all human beings – I’m not a nationalist, I don’t have any interest in that and I never did, even as a girl. Patti Smith

Patti Smith Portrait Photograph

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Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Nick Cave, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Mapplethorpe and other Famous American Singers.