Patti Smith on the One Desire That Lasts Forever

Summary of Patti Smith on the One Desire That Lasts Forever

by New York Times Opinion

1h 17m•November 18, 2025
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Overview of Patti Smith on the One Desire That Lasts Forever

This New York Times Opinion interview features Patti Smith reflecting on a lifetime of art, music, reading and spiritual experience. Smith discusses formative childhood memories (including a famous encounter with a snapping turtle), the moment she knew she wanted to be an artist, early life in late‑60s/70s New York, her rise as a performer (and the creation/touring of Horses), the decision to step away from fame to raise a family in Michigan, and the creative practices and inner life that sustain her work. The conversation moves between personal anecdotes, philosophical ideas (her recurring phrase “rebel hump”), practical advice for writers and performers, and book recommendations.

Key topics discussed

  • Childhood communion with nature: the tortoise episode and a sustained sense of nonverbal empathy and imagination.
  • Early influences: reading, Bible stories, Grimm tales, Picassos and the moment at the Philadelphia Museum that crystallized her desire to be an artist.
  • New York City in the late 1960s/70s: the energy of the scene, intermingling of artists (Mapplethorpe, Warhol, Dylan, Joplin), and why that era felt generative.
  • Performance and identity: Smith’s self‑description as a poet and performer rather than as a “musician,” and what she thinks of labels like “godmother of punk.”
  • Turning away from fame: why she left touring to live in Michigan, raise a family, and do the inward work of evolving as an artist and person.
  • The creative process: discipline (writing every day), receptivity (moments of being “given” language), the middle “alchemy” that transforms input into art, and the recurring motif “rebel hump.”
  • Contemporary worries: housing and development in New York, the frightening and corrosive power of the news, and the importance of retaining joy and purpose amid social turmoil.
  • Book recommendations and literary touchstones: Pinocchio, Frankenstein, Sylvia Plath’s poetry, and Roberto Bolaño’s 2666.

Main takeaways

  • Creativity is both discipline and mystery: Smith emphasizes daily practice and study while honoring unpredictable, gifted moments when a work is “given.”
  • The inner life matters more than external metrics: she resists measuring art by audience size or fame, focusing instead on the work’s honesty and worth.
  • Retreat can be creative strategy: leaving public life allowed Smith to evolve, write, and rebuild her creative center—“crush it into small stones… pulverize them, and as the dust settles, dance upon it.”
  • Art is a sustaining force: Smith views poems as condensed vessels of meaning (a teardrop that becomes a liter of water), and she champions their capacity to distill experience.
  • Maintain faith in joy and possibility even amid collective suffering; preserve the “rebel hump” (creative impulse) against discouragement.

Notable moments & quotes

  • The tortoise: a childhood episode (sat with a snapping turtle for hours) that Smith remembers as a nonverbal “journey” — emblematic of her lifelong access to other modes of consciousness.
  • Museum revelation: age 12, seeing Picassos in Philadelphia felt like “struck by lightning” and defined her vocation.
  • Meeting Bob Dylan after a memorable Bitter End show that debuted the band’s drummer — a youthful, awkward moment but an affirmation of being noticed.
  • On leaving fame: “It wasn't my goal in life to become a rich and famous rock star… I wanted to do something important.”
  • On poetry: “If you get the greatest of poems, it can distill everything like a teardrop… then you're satisfied.”
  • On the soul: “I believe it's the color of water.”

Practical advice for writers and creatives

  • Write every day: Smith treats writing as a muscle requiring daily exercise; she wrote by hand and rewrote paragraphs many times.
  • Balance study and receptivity: research and disciplined study provide raw material, but receptive quiet can yield sudden breakthroughs.
  • Cultivate listening: make space (sometimes by stepping away from noise and expectation) so interior voices can be heard.
  • Work for worth, not applause: focus on doing the job and the craft, rather than measuring success by external validation.

Recommended reading (from Smith)

  • Pinocchio (the classic tale; for Smith it’s a touchstone about redemption and longing)
  • Frankenstein (Mary Shelley; a meditation on creation)
  • Selected poems by Sylvia Plath
  • 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Episode highlights — quick timeline

  • Childhood: tortoise encounter; hiding Foxe’s Book of Martyrs; early questions about soul and morality.
  • Age 12: transformative visit to Philadelphia Museum of Art (Picasso/Guernica later linked to current wartime suffering).
  • Late 1960s/early 70s NYC: arrival in the Village, cheap housing, cross‑pollination of artists.
  • Early performances: CBGBs, Bitter End (meeting Bob Dylan), recording Horses (1975).
  • Mid‑career pivot: moves to Michigan to raise a family and rediscover writing and identity.
  • Later life: ongoing touring for Horses’ 50th anniversary; reflections on aging, loss, joy and continuing the work.

Who should listen

  • Aspiring writers, musicians and performers seeking insight on discipline and the creative life.
  • Fans of Patti Smith and of the late‑60s/70s New York art scene.
  • Anyone interested in how artists balance public success with private evolution and family life.

For a listener who wants the essence of the conversation without the full episode: this interview is a wide‑ranging, intimate reflection on how imagination, discipline and soulful receptivity sustained Patti Smith across decades of art, loss, fame, retreat and return.