Smith: "If you feel good about who you are inside, it will radiate."

Smith: "We have such a great depth of human history in all of the arts, whether it's opera or mathematics or painting or classical music or jazz. There's so many things to study, new books to read, and certainly always ways to transform old ideas and to come up with new ones."

Smith: "I want to be around a really long time. I want to be a thorn in the side of everything as long as possible."

Smith: "The issue of gender was never my biggest concern; my biggest concern was doing good work. When the feminist movement really got going, I wasn't an active part of it because I was more concerned with my own mental pursuits."

Smith: "Never let go of that fiery sadness called desire."

Smith: "For everything bad, there's a million really exciting things, whether it's someone puts out a really great book, there's a new movie, there's a new detective, the sky is unbelievably golden, or you have the best cup of coffee you ever had in your life."

Smith: "No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist."

Smith: "I had to learn, really, how to rein in my energies and discipline myself. And I found it very very useful. I rebelled against it at first, but it's a good thing to have."

Smith: "I've always felt outside of things; I've always felt different."

Smith: "Artists, musicians, scientists - if you have any kind of visionary aptitude, it's often something that you don't have a choice in. You have to do it."

Smith: "I personally am not interested in people trying to pigeonhole me."

Smith: "To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom."

Smith: "Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand."

Smith: "You can't change the world; you can't fix the whole environment. But you can recycle. You can turn the water off when you're brushing your teeth. You can do small things."

Smith: "In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth."

Smith: "I think we have a creative impulse where suffering can magnify our work, but so can joy. You can be in love and write the greatest love song ever. Sometimes I think too much suffering makes it difficult to do one's work."

Smith: "Besides me wanting to be an artist, I wanted to be a movie star."

Smith: "Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man. The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times."

Smith: "If I've learned one thing in life, it's not to be so judgmental of other people."

Smith: "Sometimes you're doing really well, then, after three or four years, everything inexplicably crashes like a house of cards and you have to rebuild it. It's not like you get to a point where you're all right for the rest of your life."

Smith: "As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag."

Smith: "Grief starts to become indulgent, and it doesn't serve anyone, and it's painful. But if you transform it into remembrance, then you're magnifying the person you lost and also giving something of that person to other people, so they can experience something of that person."

Smith: "Good news doesn't necessarily have to be a positive thing. Bringing good news is imparting hope to one's fellow man."