Penthouse: Do you jerk off a lot?
Smith: Only when I’m working. It’s such an intense procedure for me. It’s like a ritual ‘cause I take it real seriously. I try to eat some hashish and then I read a little. It doesn’t have to be dirty, just so long as it’s well written.
I think masturbating is a really important function in art. People don’t like to hear that kind of stuff, but it’s true. That’s what Genet did to create. I can always tell when somebody’s been jerking off. All the great writers, Alexander Trochi, William Burroughs, and Arthur Rimbaud. To me, fucking and masturbation and art is all the same because all it is is total concentration. And that’s what performing is, too. When I’m doing a long piece, a ten- minute “Gloria” or a really long “Land of a Thousand Dances,” I have to concentrate just like I’m trying to come with a guy or just like when I’m masturbating. A good artist’s always got his hand in his zipper.
A baby wolf with neon bones
[from interview by Nick Tosches with Patti Smith, Penthouse, April ‘76]
Find the full interview here
Amazing!!!
Just another example of why my every day filter for living is “What would Patti Smith do?”
WWPSD?
BE BOLD.
BE BRAVE.
I love you.
Blessings to Patti Smith and every other living being on space ship planet Earth.
luv love loving God love Goddess prosperity divine love
-Amy J
