C’est une histoire d’obsession qui anime Patti Smith, d’obsession créatrice, que l’on retrouve sous différentes formes dans cet ouvrage très personnel. De passage à Paris, l’artiste observe tout et absorbe tout. À la manière d’un journal intime, elle retranscrit ses impressions qui viendront nourrir «Dévotion», la nouvelle qui compose le cœur du livre et lui donne son titre, conte poétique et glaçant qui revisite le Faust de Goethe au féminin.

Patti Smith nous offre ici un aperçu émouvant de son processus d’écriture mais aussi une réflexion sur ce qui la pousse à écrire, encore et toujours.

From the renowned artist and author Patti Smith, a rare and generous look into the creative process

A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic—its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our culture’s beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections.

Patti Smith first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsession—a young skater who lives for her art, a possessive collector who ruthlessly seeks his prize, a relationship forged of need both craven and exalted. She then takes us on a second journey, exploring the sources of her story. We travel through the South of France to Camus’s house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weil’s grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modiano’s novels. Whether writing in a café or a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her art and craft in this arresting and original book on writing.

The Why I Write series is based on the Windham-Campbell Lectures, delivered annually to commemorate the awarding of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes at Yale University