Patti Smith

“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.”

“For Christmas every year, my mother used to give me those cheap little diaries that would tell your horoscope and provide a little blank slot for each day.”

“If you feel good about who you are inside, it will radiate.”

“The thing is that as you grow through life, the pursuit of art and the pursuit of new ideas, all these things keeps your mind elastic.”

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

“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.”

“You can't change the world; you can't fix the whole environment. But you can recycle. You can turn the water off when you're brushing your teeth. You can do small things.”

“I have great respect for my parents. I got such beautiful things from both of them. It doesn't mean that we didn't have our rough times, but they were remarkable people who were open-minded, creative and hard-working, and had great senses of humor.”

“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.”

“Good news doesn't necessarily have to be a positive thing. Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man.”

“People wouldn't know this about me, but I adore ball gowns. I love their cut, their architecture and the thought of the hands of so many seamstresses working on them.”

“The new artists coming through were very materialistic and Hollywood, not so engaged in communication.”