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41 " Secretly I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revelation that human beings create art, that to be an artist was to see what others could not. "
― Patti Smith , Just Kids
42 " In Washington Square, one could still feel the characters of Henry James and the presence of the author himself. Entering the perimeters of the white arch, one was greeted by the sounds of bongos and acoustic guitars, protest singers, political arguments, activists leafleting, older chess players challenged by the young. This open atmosphere was something I had not experienced, simple freedom that did not seem to be oppressive to anyone. "
43 " I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth "
44 " In my way of thinking, anything is possible. Life is at the bottom of things and belief at the top, while the creative impulse, dwelling in the center, informs all. "
― Patti Smith , M Train
45 " -What is nothing? I impetuously asked.-It is what you can see of your eyes without a mirror, was the answer. "
46 " Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand. "
― Patti Smith
47 " Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire. "
48 " It ain't so easy writing about nothin "
49 " The thing is, it's not uncool to worry about people who seem like they're going on the wrong path. There's nothing cool about being self-destructive. "
50 " The new artists coming through were very materialistic and Hollywood, not so engaged in communication. "
51 " Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn't serve anyone, and it's painful. But if you transform it into remembrance, then you're magnifying the person you lost and also giving something of that person to other people, so they can experience something of that person. "
52 " 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. "
53 " In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth. "
54 " To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom. "
55 " home "
56 " 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. "
57 " 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. "
― Patti Smith , Devotion
58 " I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it." - reference to Andy Warhol "
59 " Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs were all my teachers, each one passing through the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel, my new university. "
60 " Я жадала чесності, проте знаходила нечесність у собі. "