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Author: Patti Smith
Quotes of Author: Patti Smith
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  1. Patti Smith _ M Train

    I crossed over to Broadway and walked north to Twenty-fifth Street to the Serbian Orthadox Cathedral dedicated to Saint Seva, the patron saint of the Serbs, I stopped, as I had many times before, to visit the bust of Nikola Tesla, the patron saint of alternating current, placed outside the church like a lone sentinel. I stood as a Con Edison truck parked within eyeshot. No respect, I thought.-And you think you have problems, he said to me.-Oh, I'm just having trouble writing. I move back and forth between lethargy and agitation,-A pity. Perhaps you should step inside and light a candle to Saint Seva. He calms the sea for ships,-yeah, maybe. I'm off balance, not sure what's wrong.-You have misplaced joy, he said without hesitation. Without joy we are as dead,-How do I find it again?-Find those who have it and bathe in their perfection.-Thank you, Mr. Tesla. Is there something I can do for you?-Yes, he said, could you move a bit to the left? You're standing in my light.
    book-quote

  2. Patti Smith _ Devotion

    Why is one compelled to write? To set oneself apart, cocooned, rapt in solitude, despite the wants of others. Virginia Woolf had her room. Proust his shuttered windows. Marguerite Duras her muted house. Dylan Thomas his modest shed. All seeking an emptiness to imbue with words. The words that will penetrate virgin territory, crack unclaimed combinations, articulate the infinite. The words that formed Lolita, The Lover, Our Lady of the Flowers.
    book-quote

  3. Patti Smith

    I refuse to believe that Hendrix had the last possessed hand
    musicinspirationsmithoriginality

  4. Patti Smith _ Just Kids

    Some of us are born rebellious. Reading the story of Zelda Fitzgerald by Nancy Milford, I identified with her mutinous spirit. I remember passing shopwindows with my mother and asking why people didn't just kick them in. She explained that there were unspoken rules of social behavior, and that's the way we coexist as people. I felt instantly confined by the notion that we are born into a world where everything was mapped out by those before us. I struggled to suppress destructive impulses and worked instead on creative ones. Still, the small rule-hating self within me did not die.
    book-quote

  5. Patti Smith _ Just Kids

    When we got to the part where we had to improvise an argument in a poetic language, I got cold feet. "I can't do this," I said. "I don't know what to say.""Say anything," he said. "You can't make a mistake when you improvise.""What if I mess it up? What if I screw up the rhythm?""You can't," he said. "It's like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another."In this simple exchange, Sam taught me the secret of improvisation, one that I have accessed my whole life."
    book-quoteplaywritingsam-shepard

  6. Patti Smith

    A writer or any artist can't expect to be embraced by the people. I've done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it's your calling. But it's beautiful to be embraced by the people. Some people have said to me, "Well, don't you think that kind of success spoils one as an artist? If you're a punk rocker, you don't want to have a hit record…" And I say to them, "Fuck you!
    writingartcreativity
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