Patti Smith

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.

I always wanted to be an artist, writer and poet since I was seven, and one has to live long enough to evolve as an artist and do one's finest work.

I would rather write or record something great and have it overlooked than do mediocre work and have it be popular.

I'm a worker. I do the work to communicate, and I want people to embrace it, and when they do I'm happy.

People have the power to redeem the work of fools.

There are so many great 19th-century photographers, and it's really my favorite period, but the amateurs did such beautiful work.

Music television is all about the media-oriented version of what it is to be a rock star; it's not about what Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix were about - which included great images, sure, but they had spiritual and political and revolutionary content, too.

As an artist, I used to think that my responsibility was to do good work. But I had to learn from the '70s on that being a public figure presents another aspect of responsibility.

When I'm writing a book, I don't have any responsibility to anyone. I'm solitary. I'm writing on my own. I write by hand. And I write every day. I mean, it's part of my daily discipline.

Nothing will stifle your human evolution more than fame and fortune.