From a 1978 Japanese tv interview, Patti Smith comes with a perennial message: “*This* is your Golden Age…the time to flower is now”

Patti Smith, 1979, Wikimedia

I believe that we, that this planet, hasn't seen its Golden Age. Everybody says it's finished...art's finished, rock and roll is dead, God is dead. Fuck that! This is my chance on the world. I didn't live back there in Mesopotamia, I wasn't there in the Garden of Eden, I wasn't there with Emperor Han, I'm here right now and I want now to be the greatest time. This is my Golden Age...if only each generation would realise that the time for greatness is right now when they're alive...the time to flower is now...

In High on Rebellion, from interview on Japanese television, 1978