Hear Patti Smith Read From ‘Just Kids’
Hear Patti on this link at the finalist readings for the National Book Award. It’s seven minutes, both funny (her first meeting with Alan Ginsberg) and moving (her last letter to Robert Mapplethorpe).
Hear Patti on this link at the finalist readings for the National Book Award. It’s seven minutes, both funny (her first meeting with Alan Ginsberg) and moving (her last letter to Robert Mapplethorpe).
Bryce Alcock's blog about reading and writing.
"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Isaiah Berlin used this Greek proverb to divide writers and thinkers into two categories.
Once I was covered in spines and knew how the world worked, but now I shadow the pluralist fox outrunning the hounds. Neither tag fits – the world is too uncertain to know either many things or one big thing – but both foxes and hedgehogs give rise to wonderful stories. While I know nothing for certain, I believe in many things, such as the power of story to illuminate or lead astray. I hope my stories will do one or the other.
PS: There’s more! This is a link to a 54 minute video interview “Patti Smith talks books with Jonathan Lethem.” http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=20324
She talks about her love of books, how she wrote “Just Kids”, and answers questions from the audience. She wrote her book for Robert and also because she “wanted people to know Robert as I had known him.” She is warm, down-to-earth and wise.