Rebeccamasseyisgmail.com asked Patti Smith:

Hi Patti, I'd just like to know if there are any similarities in the way you approach writing your books and writing your albums? Thanks!

Patti Smith I think it may be easier to speak of how they are dissimilar. The most important difference is that albums are, in my experience, a collaborative process. Although I have written all of my own lyrics, I am usually dependent on my musical partners to magnify and interpret lyrics I have written or vice-versa. Much of our work is improvisational, where we form music and the trajectory of the language simultaneously. Recording brings into play technology and technicians, production and performance. Making an album is a more visceral experience, hoping for a more immediate response from the listener. Writing a book is a more solitary and individual experience.

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