"It didn't matter one bit if I was the only person dancing, I was so into supporting my friends' art."

"It was important to me to be the straight-A student. In a way, I was a rebel by getting good grades, because most of the stoners and the druggies were getting no grades."

"it started dawning on me that you don't have to be Al Green or have an incredible Freddie Mercury voice to have a place in the world of music. Rhyming and developing a character were another way to do it."

"I instinctively knew that the miracle of manipulating energy and tapping into an infinite source of power and harnessing it in a small space with your friends was what I had been put on this earth to do."

"At last, I had something to do that had meaning and purpose. I felt I could put every idea and stupid little philosophy that I had into a song."

"It's so lonely when you don't even know yourself."

"It's always important to give things away; it creates good energy. If you have a closet full of clothes, and you try to keep them all, your life will get very small. But if you have a full closet and someone sees something they like, if you give it to them, the world is a better place."

"I recognize when I feel a sense of entitlement you get used to having things your way - but I also recognize the absurdity of that, and I'm willing to laugh at myself and to acknowledge when I'm being a spoiled brat and when I'm not. I found it fascinating and peculiar, more than suddenly thinking I was better than or holier them."

"When you're at odds with yourself, it's hard to create. Sometimes the writing process is as easy as opening up the window and letting in the breeze. And sometimes it's like chiseling away at a block of granite with a pencil."

"You're feeling like shit? Go get out of yourself and do something for someone else, voila, you don't feel like shit anymore. You're confused and you're driving yourself crazy? Go call a guy who's got three days sober and has no clue what to do. The minute you get out of your self-centered mind-set, you're instantly freed of your own pain."

"It's that appreciation of every emotion in the spectrum that that I live for. I don't go out of my way to create it, but I have found a way to embrace all of it. It's not about putting down any of these experiences, because now that I've had them, and now that I'm almost four years sober, I'm in a position to be of service to hundreds of other suffering people."

In this "vivid and inspiring" New York Times bestseller (Newsweek), the Red Hot Chili Peppers' lead singer and songwriter shares a searingly honest account of life in the rock scene's fast lane—from the darkness into the light. In 1983, four self-described "knuckleheads" burst out of the mosh-pitted mosaic of the neo-punk rock scene in L.A. with their own unique brand of cosmic hardcore mayhem funk. Over twenty years later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, against all odds, have become one of the most successful bands in the world. Though the band has gone through many incarnations, Anthony Kiedis, the group's lyricist and dynamic lead singer, has been there for the whole roller-coaster ride. In Scar Tissue, Kiedis delivers a compelling life story from a man "in love with everything"—the darkness, the death, the disease. Even his descent into drug addiction was a part of that journey, another element transformed into art. Whether he's honoring the influence of the beautiful, strong women who have been his muses or remembering the roaring crowds of Woodstock and the Dalai Lama's humble compound, Kiedis shares a compelling story about the price of success and excess. Scar Tissue is a story of dedication and debauchery, of intrigue and integrity, of recklessness and redemption—a story that could only have come out of the world of rock.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

mentalhealth

Mental Health

creativity

Creativity

books

Books

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Anthony Kiedis

Larry Sloman

Scar Tissue

"Doing comedy alone onstage is the ego's last stand."

Darkness is essential: If light is thrown on the audience, they don't laugh; I might as well have told them to still and be quiet.

"The comedian's slang for a successful show is "I murdered them," which I'm sure came about because you finally realize that the audience is capable of murdering you."

"This book is not an autobiography but a biography, because I am writing about someone I used to know. Yes, these events are true, yet sometimes they seemed to have happened to someone else, and I often felt like a curious onlooker or someone trying to remember a death."

"I could not sing or dance, and the only acting I did was really just shouting. Thankfully perseverence is a great substitute for talent."

"Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naïveté, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do."

"I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspirations."

"Any new social philosophy is good for creativity."

"Teaching is, after all, a form of show business."

"I felt that a career in the irrational world of creativity not only made sense but had moral purpose."

"Comedy is a distortion of what is happening, and there will always be something happening."

"It was easy to be great. Every entertainer has a night when everything is clicking. These nights are accidental and statistical: Like lucky cards in poker, you can count on them occurring over time. What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances."

"The few hours I spent in the clubs and coffeehouses seemed like a full existence."

"Celebrities want fame when it's useful and don't when it's not. That argument is absolutely true."

"Movies were social; stand-up was antisocial."

"In psychoanalysis, you try to retain a discovery; in art, once the thing is made, you let it go."

Quotes from one of the greatest multihyphenates of all time, Steve Martin.

Steve Martin has been an international star for over thirty years. Here, for the first time, he looks back to the beginning of his career and charmingly evokes the young man he once was. Born in Texas but raised in California, Steve was seduced early by the comedy shows that played on the radio when the family travelled back and forth to visit relatives. When Disneyland opened just a couple of miles away from home, an enchanted Steve was given his first chance to learn magic and entertain an audience. He describes how he noted the reaction to each joke in a ledger - 'big laugh' or 'quiet' - and assiduously studied the acts of colleagues, stealing jokes when needed. With superb detail, Steve recreates the world of small, dark clubs and the fear and exhilaration of standing in the spotlight. While a philosophy student at UCLA, he worked hard at local clubs honing his comedy and slowly attracting a following until he was picked up to write for TV. From here on, Steve Martin became an acclaimed comedian, packing out venues nationwide. One night, however, he noticed empty seats and realised he had 'reached the top of the rollercoaster'. BORN STANDING UP is a funny and riveting chronicle of how Steve Martin became the comedy genius we now know and is also a fascinating portrait of an era.

movies

Movies & Shows

entertainment

Entertainment

Steve Martin

Born Standing Up

"Story had meant something to me. And I guess it's part of the world's ways to see it go, and I wonder what's going to be next?"

"I am not even a real artist - know I am a fake of some sort - sort of write from the bowels of disgust, almost entirely. Yet, when I see what the others are doing, I go on with it."

"Show me an old poet and I'll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master."

"The only thing intelligent about a good art is if it shakes you alive, otherwise it's hokum,"

"I think the letter itself is important as a form, just as the poet-form, and it has a way of saying that the poem-form does not, and also the other way around,"

"art is art and names are secondary. We are not politicians of the literary scene."

"The mass, both the actual mass and the Artistic mass (in the sense of large practicing numbers only) are always far behind, practicing safety not only in the material and economic life but in the life of the so-called soul."

" I am not addicted to reading my stuff after writing it. It's like hanging onto faded flowers."

"it's a man's own business if he'd rather fiddle with a poem than invest in real estate."

"That's the danger of talking. You talk talk talk all wax and wallow and pretty soon you don't know what you are saying... I don't... that's why I feel much better when I am mostly quiet."

"Perhaps the first atrocity was the human foot upon the untouched."

"Creation can't bear up under restrictions."

"I feel that I am too old to be destroyed - creatively - it's ingrained like death, no shaking it off."

"great Art is pure ranting in a golden cage."

"you compare only the best to the best. You can't help it. Once a man has leaped 18 feet straight up into the air and then comes back and only leaps 13 feet, it's just not enough for us."

"The first process of learning or creation is the undoing of teaching."

"I've found that the least talented scream the loudest,"

"I don't believe in pain as a pusher of art. Pain is too often. We can breathe without it. If it will let us."

"Writers seem to write to be known as writers."

Sharp and moving reflections and ruminations on the artistry and craft of writing from one of our most iconoclastic, riveting, and celebrated masters.Charles Bukowski’s stories, poems, and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. In this collection of correspondence—letters to publishers, editors, friends, and fellow writers—the writer shares his insights on the art of creation.On Writing reveals an artist brutally frank about the drudgery of work and canny and uncompromising about the absurdities of life—and of art. It illuminates the hard-edged, complex humanity of a true American legend and counterculture icon—the “laureate of American lowlife” (Time)—who stoically recorded society’s downtrodden and depraved. It exposes an artist grounded in the visceral, whose work reverberates with his central ideal: “Don't try.”Piercing, poignant, and often hilarious, On Writing is filled not only with memorable lines but also with Bukowski’s trademark toughness, leavened with moments of grace, pathos, and intimacy.

philosophy

Philosophy

Charles Bukowski

On Writing

"memory-based narrative production is intimately linked to patterns of political, economic, and cultural state accommodation for minorities."

"Just as citizens can use memories of violence to make cultural rights claims, state leaders may use memories for entirely different purposes, thus flagging the malleability of memory."

"Public narratives require an audience beyond the immediate affected community. Individuals and communities must be able to craft narratives that are intriguing or shocking enough to draw in outside listeners."

"different storytellers emphasize preferred aspects of a memory in order to make the resulting narratives more in line with their purposes."

"social memory may shift in order to be instrumentally useful to those doing the remembering."

"Collective memory is a social act constructed within the vehicle of narrative, which allows for memory dispersion and perpetuation."

Ethnic minority communities make claims for cultural rights from states in different ways depending on how governments include them in policies and practices of accommodation or assimilation. However, institutional explanations don’t tell the whole story, as individuals and communities also protest, using emotionally compelling narratives about past wrongs to justify their claims for new rights protections. Democratization and Memories of Violence: Ethnic minority rights movements in Mexico, Turkey, and El Salvador examines how ethnic minority communities use memories of state and paramilitary violence to shame states into cooperating with minority cultural agendas such as the right to mother tongue education. Shaming and claiming is a social movement tactic that binds historic violence to contemporary citizenship. Combining theory with empirics, the book accounts for how democratization shapes citizen experiences of interest representation and how memorialization processes challenge state regimes of forgetting at local, state, and international levels. Democratization and Memories of Violence draws on six case studies in Mexico, Turkey, and El Salvador to show how memory-based narratives serve as emotionally salient leverage for marginalized communities to facilitate state consideration of minority rights agendas. This book will be of interest to postgraduates and researchers in comparative politics, development studies, sociology, international studies, peace and conflict studies and area studies.

history

History

education

Learning & Education

communication

Communication

Mneesha Gellman

Democratization and Memories of Violence

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is the lord of all the animals."

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

"They worked diligently, hardly raising their faces from the ground, and not knowing whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors."

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Animal Farm is a classic in all of literature. Here is a collection of quotes I gathered when reading this for the first time...

The animals of Manor Farm have revolted and taken over. Upon the death of Old Major, pigs Snowball and Napoleon lead a revolt against Mr. Jones, driving him from the farm. The animals embrace the Seven Commandments of Animalism and life carries on, but they learn that a farm ruled by animals looks more human than ever.Intended as a critique of Stalinist-era Russia, Orwell’s satirical novella Animal Farm is one of his greatest literary achievements. Animal Farm was chosen as one of Time magazine’s 100 best English-language novels, and won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996.HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.

George Orwell

Animal Farm

"I found trouble, but the rest if what I was looking for, I haven't found that yet, maybe we find it when we die, maybe we don't. you've got your books of philosophy, your priest, your preacher, your scientist, so don't ask me."

"Then I knew that he has decided that I was not such a good writer after all. Maybe even a bad writer. Well, no man can hide forever."

"Sunday night in Los Angeles is the graveyard of the nation, they are all waiting for Monday morning."

"Now and then, though, a poet does fall upon a magic audience where everything is right. I can't explain how this works. It is very strange - it is as if the poet were the audience and the audience were the poet. It all flows."

"You could never underestimate an audience. They had paid to get in: they had paid for drinks; they intended to get something and if you didn't give it to them they'd run you right into the ocean."

"As I write this I am listening to something on the radio that I have never heard before. I feast on each note like a man starving for a new rush of blood and meaning and it's there. I am totally astonished by the mass of great music, centuries and centuries of it. It must be that many great souls once lived."

"I disliked Hollywood, the movies seldom ever worked for me. What was I doing with these people? Was I being sucked in? 72 years of fighting the good fight, then to be sucked away?"

"Some critics say I write the same thing over and over, well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but when I do the reason is that it feels so good, it's like I'm making love to myself, but not really - it's to this machine."

Charles Bukowski has always been one of my favorite writers. This book is a collection of poems, stories, and written materials on his extensive relationship with alcohol.

The definitive collection of works on a subject that inspired and haunted Charles Bukowski for his entire life: alcohol Charles Bukowski turns to the bottle in this revelatory collection of poetry and prose that includes some of the writer’s best and most lasting work. A self-proclaimed “dirty old man,” Bukowski used alcohol as muse and as fuel, a conflicted relationship responsible for some of his darkest moments as well as some of his most joyful and inspired. In On Drinking, Bukowski expert Abel Debritto has collected the writer’s most profound, funny, and memorable work on his ups and downs with the hard stuff—a topic that allowed Bukowski to explore some of life’s most pressing questions. Through drink, Bukowski is able to be alone, to be with people, to be a poet, a lover, and a friend—though often at great cost. As Bukowski writes in a poem simply titled “Drinking,”: “for me/it was or/is/a manner of/dying/with boots on/and gun/smoking and a/symphony music background.” On Drinking is a powerful testament to the pleasures and miseries of a life in drink, and a window into the soul of one of our most beloved and enduring writers.

writing

Reading & Writing

On Drinking

It's about recognizing what people want, and serving it up simply and succinctly.
It's about removing the mental and physical clutter created by unnecessary choice.

"Problems are the most effective springboard for innovations."

"The approach that works best on a website or a billboard is likely not the same as what works best on Instagram, and vice versa."

"As much as people claim they want excitement and freshness, it's hard to change ingrained behaviors."

Everything we do as humans, whether we know it or not, is ultimately motivated by knowledge of our own mortality.

Obsessed by Emily Heyward provides a series of suggestions and considerations for brands hitting the market. Heyward also explores nuances of human behavior and exhibits them through a series of chapters and case studies in marketing.

The 2020 Porchlight Marketing & Sales Book of the Year The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you: • How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before • How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted" • Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

The 2020 Porchlight Marketing & Sales Book of the Year The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you:   •  How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before   •  How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted"   •  Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.

Emily Heyward is the Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Red Antler, the leading brand company for startups and new ventures. Emily works closely with founders to develop purposeful, strategic visions for their startups and has led branding efforts for top companies such as Casper, Allbirds, Brandless, and Prose. After beginning her career inadvertising, she started Red Antler along with her co-founders to directly apply consumer insights and brand positioning to launching and growing new and beloved businesses. In 2018, Red Antler made Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies in Marketing and Advertising and was dubbed the “cult brand whisperer”.

Emily was named among the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade by Inc. Magazine, and has also been recognized as a Top Female Founder by Inc. and one of Entrepreneur's Most Powerful Women of 2019. As a brand strategy expert, Emily is frequently interviewed by the press, with commentary appearing in Forbes, Bloomberg, Inc., Fast Company and Adweek. She’s also been a featured speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt, 99U, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Her first book, Obsessed, will be published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Randomhouse, on June 9, 2020.

Emily graduated Magna Cum laude from Harvard University, where she studied postmodern theory and consumer culture. Born and raised in New York, she currently lives in Carroll Gardens with her wife, son, and Brussels Griffon Sprout.

Emily Heyward

Obsessed

"I was at ease in everything, to be sure, but at the same time satisifed with nothing. Each joy made me desire another."

"I love it so much that I am incapable of imagining what is not life."

"Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate - for them."

"Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object."

"Today we are always ready to judge as we are to fornicate."

"The judgment you are passing on others eventually snaps back in your face, causing some damage."

"The Fall" by Albert Camus is a fascinating read. Camus is a hardcore existentialist (which I'm not particularly in agreement with) but his ideas remain monumental to the mind. These are a collection of quotes I gathered while reading the book.

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR • One of the most widely read novels of all time—from one of the best-known writers of all time—about a lawyer from Paris who brilliantly illuminates the human condition. Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality.

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR • One of the most widely read novels of all time—from one of the best-known writers of all time—about a lawyer from Paris who brilliantly illuminates the human condition.  Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a representative of non-metropolitan French literature. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties were dominating influences in his thought and work. Of semi-proletarian parents, early attached to intellectual circles of strongly revolutionary tendencies, with a deep interest in philosophy (only chance prevented him from pursuing a university career in that field), he came to France at the age of twenty-five. The man and the times met: Camus joined the resistance movement during the occupation and after the liberation was a columnist for the newspaper Combat. But his journalistic activities had been chiefly a response to the demands of the time; in 1947 Camus retired from political journali

Albert Camus

The Fall

We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking."

"It is always easy to be logical. It is almost impossible to be logical to the bitter end."

"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door. So it is with absurdity. The absurd world more than other derives its nobility from the abject birth."

"Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment always comes when we have to carry it."

"The mind's first step is to distinguish what is true from what is false. However, as soon as thought reflects on itself, what it first discovers is a contradiction."

"In reality there is no experience of death. Properly speaking, nothing has been experienced but what has been lived and made conscious."

"Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one's consciousness, making of every image a privileged place."

"There is scarcely any passion without struggle."

"For conscience moves swiftly or withdraws within itself. It has to be caught on the wing, at that barely perceptible moment when it glances fleetingly at itself."

"A single truth, if it is obvious, is enough to guide an existence."

"Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage."

"The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus is a fascinating read. Camus is a hardcore existentialist (which I'm not particularly in agreement with) but his ideas remain monumental to the mind. These are a collection of quotes I gathered while reading the book.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • An internationally acclaimed author delivers one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, showing a way out of despair and reaffirming the value of existence. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide—the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly presents a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.

A Nobel Prize-winning author delivers one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, showing a way out of despair and reaffirming the value of existence. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide—the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly presents a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.

The Myth of Sisyphus

“This is how I live, I am thinking.”﻿“But I would also keep on living, refusing to surrender my pen.”

“I loved my coat and the café and my morning routine. It was the clearest and simplest expression of my solitary identity.” - Patti Smith

Smith’s Identity

“No one wins anything; winning is an illusion” - Patti Smith

“Winning”

“Are our thoughts nothing but passing trains, no stops, devoid of dimension, whizzing by massive posters with repeating images?” - Patti Smith

Passing Ideas

<ul><li>“Such things that disappear in time we find ourselves longing to see again. We search for them in close-up, as we search for our hands in a dream.” - Patti Smith</li><li>“How is it that we never completely comprehend our love for someone until they’re gone.” - Patti Smith</li><li>“Why is it that we lost the things we love, and things cavalier cling to us and will be the measure of our worth after we’re gone.” - Patti Smith</li></ul>

Passing Time

Patti Smith is a brilliant writer. I’ve previously read “Just Kids” and loved it. M Train is a writer’s collection of coffee, love, and art. How each relate, and how life is an art.

From the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids: a “sublime collection of true stories … and wild imaginings that take us to the very heart of who Patti Smith is” (Vanity Fair), told through the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. Patti Smith calls this bestselling work “a roadmap to my life.” M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, we travel to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico; to the fertile moon terrain of Iceland; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York’s Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; to the West 4th Street subway station, filled with the sounds of the Velvet Underground after the death of Lou Reed; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima. Woven throughout are reflections on the writer’s craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith’s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith. Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature, and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable multiplatform artists at work today. Featuring a postscript with five new photos from Patti Smith

health

Health

timemanagement

Time Management

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids: a “sublime collection of true stories … and wild imaginings that take us to the very heart of who Patti Smith is” (Vanity Fair), told through the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. Patti Smith calls this bestselling work “a roadmap to my life.” M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, we travel to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico; to the fertile moon terrain of Iceland; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York’s Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; to the West 4th Street subway station, filled with the sounds of the Velvet Underground after the death of Lou Reed; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima. Woven throughout are reflections on the writer’s craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith’s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith.     Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature, and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable multiplatform artists at work today. Featuring a postscript with five new photos from Patti Smith