I like not knowing too much about somebody I'm photographing, because the process also becomes an experience for me to learn about .

When I started photographing Patti [Smith], I knew that there wasn't a whole a lot of information out there about her. I was periodically interested in films, and so I just kept asking her if I could come around.

When I went to Detroit, I was very naïve, actually, and I think Patti [Smith] picked up on that quite quickly.

The only self-consciousness in the film [Dream of Life] is anyone's natural shyness.

Angelo Corrao was our editor [in Dream of Life], and he was just so diligent and so old-school in the way he looked at editing. He would take my far-out ideas and tame them and make sense of them.

I was making a film [Dream of Life] about Patti [Smith], but I was taking pictures, too.

I became Patti's [Smith] messenger, basically, and the film is my view of how I learned about Patti.