Truthfully, I don't really think of myself as a photographer. I don't have all the disciplines and knowledge of a person who's spent their life devoted to photography.

My mother answers all my fan mail.

People say hello to me. I mean, sometimes the sanitation truck goes by and says, hey Patti.

Obviously, I'm not homeless. I'm not an old alcoholic. I'm not jumping trains. I just like to live in a certain way.

I was always a tomboy as a kid. I always had boyfriends. I was just a regular girl growing up in the late '50s and early '60s, but I was never really attracted to what the girls were attracted to: makeup, my appearance, homemaking.

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

The two things that constantly inspired me were books and travel.