"I got my style from a lot of different people, even my style of reading, even Johnny Carson inspired me."
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Quote collection
Patti Smith quotes (page 22 of 23)
456 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"My mission is to communicate, to wake people up, just to give them my energy and accept theirs."
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"I always wear the same thing onstage."
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"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."
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"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."
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"I wrote every day. I don't think I could have written Just Kids had I not spent all of the 80s developing my craft as a writer."
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"If someone didn't want to be filmed, or my children said, "Don't film me anymore," [Steven Sebring] didn't try to sneak a shot or cajole them; he just respected their wishes."
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"The film [Dream of Life] looks at a time in my life."
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"[Steven Sebring] presence was also nice for my children, who, having just lost their father, quite naturally craved warm male attention. They gravitated to him right away."
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"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."
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"I think its very important to not be afraid to experience joy in the middle of sorrow."
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"It was no hardship to me to spend long hours reading and writing."
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"Those were the things on my mind [stay healthy, take care of my kids and reestablish a relationship with the people], not career, money, drugs, sex, alcohol or fun. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those things, but they aren't in the film [Dream of Life], because that wasn't my life at the time."
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"I was raised in rural south Jersey, and there was no culture there. There was a small library, and that was it. There was nothing else."
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"I actually had another motivation for letting Steven [Sebring] film us. After I'd been out of the public eye for 16 years, lost my friends and lost my husband, some of my confidence had been undermined. Steven made the process of filming fun; I could pretend that we were in something like Don't Look Back."
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"Steven's [Sebring] presence was not threatening; he told me that if I never wanted the footage to be seen by anyone, he would give it to me. So I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and what I gained was his supportive energy and the supportive energy of his wife, who was sometimes the one schlepping the equipment or doing the sound."
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"The whole process of working with Steven [Sebring] and being filmed by him helped me psychologically to get my feet back on the ground."
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"I'm not really a nostalgic person."
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"I think the film [Dream of Life] is life-affirming."
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"I've lost lots of men in my life, besides my mother, which is a whole different loss."
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