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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Rock'n'roll saved my soul.

I have to reign myself in a lot.

Hits are for squares.

I never do releases to try and make or break some contemporary band.

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

It is a frightful satire and an epigram on the modern age that the only use it knows for solitude is to make it a punishment, a jail sentence.

The great thing and the hard thing is to stick to things when you have outlived the first interest and not yet got the second which comes with a sort of mastery.

The main function of the museum has been to serve as a pedestal upon which a clique of socialites pose as patrons of the arts

Without a mythology, faith is impersonal and heartless.

(I was) my own teacher and pupil, and thanks to the efforts of both, they were not discontented with each other.

Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.

We will continue talking about the beauty of the deserts as long as the forests exist on Earth! But when the last forest is gone, no beauty of deserts will remain too!

My parents were opera singers and voice teachers, so growing up, I admired musicians and dancers.

Algebra is but written geometry and geometry is but figured algebra.

You have to make rough decisions with sequencing and work within the limitations of having good audio for 15 minutes on a vinyl side.