Patti Smith Quotes

Like most creative people I don't fit well into boxes.

It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.

Art school had taught me it was far better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.

Some artists say 'Don't categorize me.' I'm saying 'You can't categorize me.'

I feel like the point of being an artist is to have your own voice: to do it the way you would do it and not the way anyone else would do it. If you're a strong enough writer, then that voice is going to come out all the time, and I can't stop it from coming out, no matter what I do.

I've never been one to sit back and go, 'I'd better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don't want to lose them.'

There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.

My shaven head is my way of saying 'I wont take no for an answer,' it is my way of saying 'I believe in my creativity and artistry.'

I'm a free spirit and that definitely comes from my upbringing, so it's definitely shaped me as an artist.

I'd just like to inspire people to be themselves and do what they want and not conform to the rigid guidelines of the music or entertainment business.

It's just someone has labelled us as having a different label to do what you do. I find that labels are the worst thing in the world for artistic expression.

People often say, 'You don't go to fashion shows? What kind of photographer are you? What the hell is the wrong with you, man?' But that's what I need in order to be who I am.

As a film-maker, I certainly don't want to be put into some box.

I understand it for marketing purposes, but I've always hated defining myself with a genre. Nothing feels broad enough.

I don't believe in reducing a style and a voice down to a set of descriptions, so I've never done that.

I'd been so heavily influenced by Em, but artists that don't grow out of that don't go anywhere. Ultimately, I came to understand that what Eminem stood for above all else was 'be yourself.'

I want to be my own artist and reflect my creativity.. I don't want to be turned into a pop princess; that's not who I am.

I'm a creative person, and I'm gonna be creative, so whoever's upset because of that, that's too bad.

Comedy has allowed me to be my 100-percent-true self, as opposed to other places, where I feel like that's been a hindrance. Whether it's music or poetry or hosting, people want you to be something else: they want you to be packaged in a certain way.

I think I have kind of have the same mind-set that Kanye West has. He just likes to do his thing.

I have never fitted neatly into the arts section, I don't think.

I am an actor who doesn't believe in carrying an 'image' in the industry. I don't want to get trapped in an image.

My music is not like everybody gonna love it, it's really what I make of it.

It's really tough to make a name for yourself without compromising and without fitting yourself into a real specific mold. When I made the choice that I would be involved in every aspect of music and not necessarily make music for radio or MTV, I was saying, 'OK, this is me. You decide who it is.'

Harmelody allows everybody to be an individual who does not have to imitate anybody else.