1
...the law of empathy, by which he could, by his will, transfer himself into an object or a work of art, and thus inflence the outer world. He did not feel redeemed by the work he did. He did not seek redemption. He sought to see what others did not, the projection of his imagination.Patti Smith
2
In the war of magic and religion, is magic ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer.Patti Smith
3
He wasn't supposed to die, ' he cried out, somewhat desperately, petulantly, like a spoiled child. But I could hear other thoughts racing between us. Neither are you. Neither am I.Patti Smith
4
We were as Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the world.Patti Smith
5
Why can't I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply.Patti Smith
6
He wrote me a note to say we would create art together and we would make it, with or without the rest of the world.Patti Smith
7
I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it.Patti Smith
8
I had no concept of what life at the Chelsea Hotel would be like when we checked in, but I soon realized it was a tremendous stroke of luck to end up there. We could have had a fair-seized railroad flat in the East Village for what we were paying, but to dwell in this eccentric and damned hotel provided a sense of security as well as a stellar education. The goodwill that surrounded us was proof that the Fates were conspiring to help their enthusiastic children.Patti Smith
9
We imagined ourselves as the Sons of Liberty with a mission to preserve, protect, and project the revolutionary spirit of rock and roll. We feared that the music which had given us sustenance was in danger of spiritual starvation. We feared it losing its sense of purpose, we feared it falling into fattened hands, we feared it floundering in a mire of spectacle, finance, and vapid technical complexity.Patti Smith
10
It was like being at an Arabian hoedown with a band of psychedelic hillbillies (p. 171).Patti Smith
11
It had started with the moon, inaccessible poem that it was.Patti Smith
12
I had no proof that I had the stuff to be an artist, though I hungered to be onePatti Smith
13
Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer.Patti Smith
14
I wanted to cry so bad, but my tears are inside. A blindfold keeps them there. I can’t see today. Patti, I don’t know anything.Patti Smith
15
Christ was a man worthy to rebel against, for he was rebellion itself.Patti Smith
16
Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?Patti Smith
17
Observing people taking in the work I had watched Robert create was an emotional experience. It had left our private world. It was what I had always wanted for him, but I felt a slight pang of possessiveness sharing it with others. Overriding that feeling was the joy of seeing Robert's face, suffused with confirmation, as he glimpsed the future he had so resolutely sought and had worked so hard to achieve. .Patti Smith
18
I paced while he slept, ricocheting like a dove skidding the lonely confines of a Joseph Cornell box.Patti Smith
19
William Burroughs was simultaneously old and young. Part sheriff, part gumshoe. All writer. He had a medicine chest he kept locked, but if you were in pain he would open it. He did not like to see his loved ones suffer. If you were infirm he would feed you. He’d appear at your door with a fish wrapped in newsprint and fry it up. He was inaccessible to a girl but I loved him anyway.Patti Smith
20
There's always new stuff, that's for sure.Patti Smith
21
He took twelve pictures that day. Within a few days he showed me the contact sheet. "This one has the magic, " he said. When I look at it now, I never see me. I see us.Patti Smith
22
I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truthPatti Smith