Quotes by Thurston Moore

• It's hard for bands to stick it out because people grow up, and it never really pays off. If you're looking for some sort of payoff, it's not gonna happen.
• The band has a liberal philosophy - that's sort of a given.
• Whenever I can afford to do something, I do it.
• A lot of the lyrical ideas do have a lot of meaning in a way, although it is somewhat abstracted.
• We're playing all these weird festivals, usually outdoors.
• Rock'n'roll saved my soul.
• We're like old people now playing music. I'm so glad we stuck it out because it's a lot better. I used to feel kind of anxious. Now our apprenticeship is over.
• We're all very sensitive that Jim has the shortest history with the band. He wants to be somewhat of a free agent. I'm just going to let time dictate how Jim's future evolves.
• Most people can't tell now who wrote what. I like that blurring of identities within the band. because it becomes a unified thing that can't be related to other forms of historical poetry.
• Kids think of us as being totally over the hill.
• No one really gets rich doing this. A couple people do, Black Sabbath does. We don't sell any records anymore.
• It's American Alternative radio stations that bug me. We're considered Alternative, but don't expect us to be played next to Blink 182 and Offspring. We're hardly of that generation.
• I was surrounded by nature and trying to come to terms with this blissful nature versus the inhumane mentality of war. People were being deluded by someone using the word peace.
• I certainly don't sit around in the morning making pancakes listening to Whitehouse or anything.
• Anyone who grows up with parents who are very influential, there are cases where people run away from that if they have parents who are really lame.
• Buddhism has become a socially recognized religious philosophy for Americans, whereas it used to be considered an exotic religion.
• Lyric writing is an interesting process in Sonic Youth. There's three people writing now, and we've all had a lot of interest and involvement with expression through words.
• Every now and again, the alternative culture is cherished by the mainstream for what it is, rather than how it should be, like the mainstream popular music.
• We never notate our music, so you can try to replicate it, but you don't really have it.
• I don't really care about, Oh I really have to sell these things.
• I grew up in the early '70s in New England.
• I have to reign myself in a lot.
• I never do releases to try and make or break some contemporary band.
• I never go back and listen to the recorded document. The thrill comes when the balance can be attained. Everyone in the room can have a shared, communal rock experience.
• I really want to do a book on the history of the no-wave music scene in New York, how it extended out and formed lots of other things. It was such a great visual culture.
• Traditional songwriting, to us, is where the experimental nature comes in. We're all involved with so much outside activity with really hardcore, experimental music-making.
• I wanted to hear the songs in the way that I had written them, which was very basic. All I wanted was drums and another guitar, and I was just going to sing.