Patti Smith Quotes

. . . rock and roll, as I see it, is the ultimate populist art form, democracy in action, because it's true: anybody can do it.

Rock and roll is my religion.

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

Rock 'n' roll is sexuality personified.

If you were around in the '60s, you already know that music and art and love are a critical part of the revolution. This is how we fight.

I definitely believe that art is the best way to produce social change.

Certainly there's a huge appeal to the '60s, because it was such a big turning point to everyone. It was the era of change, the boiling point. People rebelled against things - the hippies, the feminists, the protesters. All these things just built up and boiled over. I think people can relate to that today.

Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics.

That punk approach of 'We don't wanna get big' is really a bourgeois thing. It's not a tactic of people that actually have been successful at changing things.

The protest songs of the 1960s and 70s managed to blend political and societal views with music from the heart.

It was a wonderful time to be young. The 1960s didn't end until about 1976. We all believed in Make Love Not War - we were idealistic innocents, darling, despite the drugs and sex. We were sweet lovely people who wanted to throw out all the staid institutions who placed money and wars above all else. When you're young you think that's how life works. None of us were famous, we were broke. We didn't think they'd be writing books about us in 30 years. We were just kids doing the right thing.

Alice thought, No. It wasn't the War and the disgruntled veterans; it wasn't the droves and droves of colored people flocking to paychecks and streets full of themselves. It was the music. The dirty, get-on-down music the women sang and the men played and both danced to, close and shamelesss or apart and wild...It made you do unwise disorderly things. Just hearing it was like violating the law.

Rock 'n' roll. Deal with it.

Rock and roll isn't a career or hobby - it's a life force ... it's just something I have to do.

Rap is rock 'n' roll. Rock is when you push the buttons in the system; when you say, I'm not going along with what you're saying. That's rock, whether it's done with guitars, or it's done with just beats.

Hip-Hop is my vehicle to scientific and universal enlightenment

I always wrote like rock 'n' roll. And I always listen to rock 'n' roll as poetry.

Jazz has been the voice of freedom for so many countries over the past half century.

Rock 'n' roll is meant to entertain. Hippie folk singers are supposed to be singing about leftist views, but I don't think rock 'n' roll was ever that way. I don't remember the early rock 'n' rollers ever expressing any political views.

Culture and politics were inseparable [in the Sixties], which gave a soundtrack to political awareness and activism.

That was always what I felt was the beauty of Rock 'n' Roll, it was entertainment and showbiz yet it had the idea of the voice of the people, it had an essence to it which was socially motivated. Not that I want to change to world, you know? But it was sort of relevant to real life, it involved the real essence of poetry or the real essence of fine art. But it was also entertainment. That was the real vitality.

Rock and roll music - the music of freedom frightens people and unleashes all manner of conservative defense mechanisms.

Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.

I think my father had a lot of anti-establishment in him. He came through the '60s.