Thurston Moore

“I don't really care about, Oh I really have to sell these things.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Rock'n'roll saved my soul.”

“Each member does whatever they want with the song and it totally changes it from whatever idea I hear around it. It turns it into a Sonic Youth song and completely away from it being a solo song.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I certainly don't sit around in the morning making pancakes listening to Whitehouse or anything.”

“We never notate our music, so you can try to replicate it, but you don't really have it.”

“I grew up in the early '70s in New England.”

“I have to reign myself in a lot.”

“The band has a liberal philosophy - that's sort of a given.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Buddhism has become a socially recognized religious philosophy for Americans, whereas it used to be considered an exotic religion.”

“No one really gets rich doing this. A couple people do, Black Sabbath does. We don't sell any records anymore.”