Thurston Quotes & Sayings

Noise has taken the place of punk rock. People who play noise have no real aspirations to being part of the mainstream culture. Punk has been co-opted, and this subterranean noise music and the avant-garde folk scene have replaced it — Thurston Moore

People see rock and roll as, as youth culture, and when youth culture becomes monopolised by big business, what are the youth to do? Do you, do you have any idea?
I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture. — Thurston Moore

I don't really care about, Oh I really have to sell these things. — Thurston Moore

Knowing that "me" is inextricably linked to blackness, [I try to enjoy] the process of expanding beyond the expected boundaries set by existing culture, norms and media. — Baratunde Thurston

We humans have a wide range of abilities that help us perceive and analyze mathematical content. We perceive abstract notions not just through seeing but also by hearing, by feeling, by our sense of body motion and position. Our geometric and spatial skills are highly trainable, just as in other high-performance activities. In mathematics we can use the modules of our minds in flexible ways - even metaphorically. A whole-mind approach to mathematical thinking is vastly more effective than the common approach that manipulates only symbols. — William Thurston

He runs his eye along the row of knives in their racks, the cleavers for splitting bones. He picks one up, looks at its edge, decides it needs sharpening and says, "Do you think I look like a murderer? In your good opinion?"
A silence. After a while, Thurston proffers, "At this moment, master, I would have to say ... — Hilary Mantel

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. — Thurston Moore

Most prisons have wide gates! — Katherine Cecil Thurston

Depending on your own background and life experiences, this may or may not be new to you, but after an eight-to-twelve-hour day, white office workers often don't feel like they've spent enough time with each other. Therefore, they are prone to organizing pseudo-official company activities such as bowling or happy hour. — Baratunde R. Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

Journeys end in lovers' meeting.' ... But the real journey - the journey of adventure itself - is frequently another matter: often gray, often loverless, often demanding from the secret soul of the adventurer spirit and inspiration, lest the blood turn cold in sick dismay, and the brain cloud under its weight of nostalgia. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

I love players like Thurston Moore. I mean, you can put notes down on a sheet of paper, and if you practice and get your chops up, you can play like an Eddie Van Halen or a Steve Vai. But nobody can do what Thurston Moore does; he's his own guy. He talks through his instrument in a language that's all his own. — Frank Iero

There's certainly a lot of noise in the hip-hop world now [that] I don't pay active attention to, but to the extent that I represent some flavor of what's happening in hip-hop - it's subconscious. — Baratunde Thurston

Unlike most politicians who follow their audience, (Robert) Kennedy tried to lead his. — Thurston Clarke

If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being black-friendless, you can either go to the nearest black church and strike up a conversation, or just fire up Facebook, search for "black people," and start clicking "Add Friend" on the names in the resulting lists. Technology is amazing and quite a time-saver. — Baratunde R. Thurston

It is sacrilege to attempt analysis of birth or love or death. Death and birth, the mysteries! Love, the revelation! — Katherine Cecil Thurston

For example, when the two of you are in the coffee room, she might say to you, "Hey, we should just take all these white people's shit and burn it." But then she laughs, and you laugh, and another coworker enters the room, asking, "What's so funny?" and without missing a beat you both say, "Tina Fey! — Baratunde R. Thurston

Oh, I'm following President Obama on Twitter. I like my black history in 140 characters or less. — Baratunde R. Thurston

A good horse is the best company in the world. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

He had used it as the epigram to his 1967 book 'To Seek a Newer World,' and it expressed two pillars of his faith: that everyone has a duty to alleviate suffering, and that no one can live a fully happy life while surrounded by the unaddressed misery of others. — Thurston Clarke

If we believe men have any personal rights at all, then they must have an absolute moral right to such a measure of good health as society can provide. — Thurston Clarke

New York has been the best gift, in that the city pushes me to so many next levels. — Baratunde Thurston

My object is to mystify and entertain. I wouldn't deceive you for the world. — Howard Thurston

College is a safe space where it can be hard to truly fail. The institution is rooting for you because your failure makes them look bad, too. New York City has no such mandate. I've had to hone and sharpen and refine my work here at a pace which may not have happened in other cities. — Baratunde Thurston

Florence - the city of tranquillity made manifest ... — Katherine Cecil Thurston

No weapons are more potent than brevity and simplicity. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

2010 Foursquare Mayor Of The Year — Baratunde Thurston

DEVO was like the punk band that non Punk America saw as Punk and so when people who were really into Punk rock would be walking around on the streets the jocks who learned about Punk through Devo would roll down their windows and yell at the Punks: 'HEY, DEVO!!' — Thurston Moore

Mathematics is much less formally complete and precise than computer programs. — William Thurston

By the mercy of God all the ideas of youth are reversible! — Katherine Cecil Thurston

I have to reign myself in a lot. — Thurston Moore

The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves ... In short, mathematics only exists in a living community of mathematicians that spreads understanding and breathes life into ideas both old and new. — William Thurston

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

The most splendid moment of an adventure is not always the moment of fulfilment, not even the moment of conception, but the moment of first accomplishment, when the adventurer deliberately sets his face toward the new road, knowing that his boats are burned. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

If you chose Option 2 [confrontation], you did well. People will be less likely to engage you in office small talk of any kind, but that's likely a benefit when you consider the fact that every ten minutes of office small talk takes one year off of your life. — Baratunde R. Thurston

Nobody is such an individualist as the man who advocates equality. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

"Black culture" is ready for whatever. I sense some momentum and excitement around black artists (especially in comedy, which is where most of my own art resides), really pushing the bounds of what has generally been expected as black. I don't think it's a revolution so much as an exposure of what has always been there, and now that the production and distribution means are more accessible, people can more easily find each other. — Baratunde Thurston

Failure may be cruel, but success is crueller still. The gods are usurers, you know; they lend to mortals, but they exact a desperate interest. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

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

But I would make it through "Death Valley." Lee, Thurston, and I, and then just the two of us, stood there. My about-to-be-ex husband and I faced that mass of bobbing wet Brazilians, our voices together spell-checking the old words, and for me it was a staccato soundtrack of surreal raw energy and anger and pain: Hit it. Hit it. Hit it. I don't think I had ever felt so alone in my whole life. — Kim Gordon

The real satisfaction from mathematics is in learning from others and sharing with others. — William Thurston

Of all the ills that circumstance forces upon man, separation from a beloved object is, perhaps, the most salutary. Separation is the crucible wherein love undergoes the test absolute; in the fire of loss, grief softens to indifference or hardens to enduring need. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

As I've reflected back on both, I realize that my neighborhood was just like The Wire. We had the drug dealing, the police brutality, the murders. Well, it was /almost/ a perfect match. We had everything The Wire had except for universal critical acclaim and the undying love of white people who saw it. — Baratunde R. Thurston

A friend of mine introduced me to Thurston Moore because she thought I would like him. He was playing with the tallest band in the world, the Coachmen. They were sort of like Talking Heads, jangly guitar, Feelies guitar. Anyway, it was love at first sight. His band broke up that night. And we started playing. — Kim Gordon

I'm kind of quoting Thurston [Moore] and Kim [Gordon] in saying that about not being great with addicts, because they are the ones who said it to me. — Michael Stipe

As far as hip-hop is concerned, I'm no expert and rarely think consciously about how I "represent" hip-hop. — Baratunde Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

I mean, most of it is probably more obscure and just more noisy than either of those two bands, but Thurston has stuff all the time that he's involved with that is fairly obscure and experimental. — Kim Gordon

Remember something about attention. Yes, it's possible to buy, grab, or even steal it. But it's far better to earn it. — Baratunde Thurston

I don't know that I'm post-anything. I'd like to think maybe I'm post-bullshit. — Baratunde Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

Hits are for squares. — Thurston Moore

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

Arnold Schwarzenegger has hired billionaire Warren Buffett as his senior economic advisor. And not to be outdone Gary Coleman announced his senior economic adviser will be Thurston Howell the Third. — Conan O'Brien

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. — Thurston Moore

A year's work can be ruined quickly, sometimes within seconds, if roasting isn't done well. — Robert W. Thurston

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

By the time I got to Harvard, I feel like I knew who I was, and my job there was to throw as much against the wall as possible, to see what would stick. — Baratunde Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

To give! To give without hope of recompense, without question, without fear! That was the message of life. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

Kids think of us as being totally over the hill. — Thurston Moore

In 1968, America was a wounded nation. The wounds were moral ones; the Vietnam War and three summers of inner-city riots had inflicted them on the national soul, challenging Americans' belief that they were a uniquely noble and honorable people. — Thurston Clarke

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. — Thurston Moore

You don't see what you're seeing until you see it but when you do see it, it lets you see many other things. — William Thurston

I grew up in the early '70s in New England. — Thurston Moore

Tonight I am going to defecate on stage because I think that is the only way to express the nature of my soul according to rock and roll. — Thurston Moore

Great inventions are never, and great discoveries are seldom, the work of any one mind. Every great invention is really an aggregation of minor inventions, or the final step of a progression. It is not usually a creation, but a growth, as truly so as is the growth of the trees in the forest. — Robert Henry Thurston

The desires our little family couldn't afford to indulge had never seemed important, only snobbish and silly and somehow misplaced, like Thurston Howell's priorities on Gilligan's Island. Besides, I'd had as much or more money than most kids I'd known in Brooklyn, if somewhat less than the majority of my Manhattan schoolmates at Stuyvesant, so figured I was somewhere in the middle. Yeah, sure, that was it: I was middle class. — Jonathan Lethem

Mostly I try to be the best example of me that I can be. — Baratunde Thurston

I advise you to be suspicious of any black American whose family does not claim a blood connection to Native Americans. That's a clear sign of a racial infiltrator who has not done enough research. — Baratunde R. Thurston

Experience has shown repeatedly that a mathematical theory with a rich internal structure generally turns out to have significant implications for the understanding of the real world, often in ways no one could have envisioned before the theory was developed. — William Thurston

Mathematicians can and do fill in gaps, correct errors, and supply more detail and more careful scholarship when they are called on or motivated to do so. Our system is quite good at producing reliable theorems that can be solidly backed up. It's just that the reliability does not primarily come from mathematicians formally checking formal arguments; it comes from mathematicians thinking carefully and critically about mathematical ideas. — William Thurston

We just start putting our ideas out there, yet how do we actually attack contemporary problems? We do what some of the most successful American businesses do. We outsource and collaborate — Baratunde R. Thurston

Okay, well, if motion is the constant, how can I remain in motion? — Baratunde Thurston

Like vampires and extremely rich people, black folk can sense one another. Use your Spidey Sense (Blacky Sense?). Use your blackdar to inspect the workplace for signs of Other Negroes. They may be working security for the building. They may be in administrative support. They may be among the associate pool, or they may even be in upper management. Black folk can be anywhere. After all, you're here. But one of the biggest mistakes you can make as The Black Employee is to assume you are the only one. — Baratunde R. Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

As one reads mathematics, one needs to have an active mind, asking questions, forming mental connections between the current topic and other ideas from other contexts, so as to develop a sense of the structure, not just familiarity with a particular tour through the structure. — William Thurston

As I've submerged myself in news of the revolutions sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, I wanted desperately to feel part of what was going on. And then it hit me: This is what white people were doing to me after Obama was elected! — Baratunde Thurston

I've been into Sonic Youth since junior high school. I think I kind of have ADD, so it's good music for ADD because it just throws you in different directions all the time. I really like Kim Gordon's voice and Thurston Moore's voice, and I like the guitars going off on tangents. — Norman Reedus

Make them think they've been fooled by a gentlemen. — Howard Thurston

Throughout this book I will use the terms African-American, black, and Negro interchangeably. There is rarely a logic to it, so please try not to overthink it. — Baratunde R. Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

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

Never mind that it's not owned by a black person anymore. You can still learn a lot from BET. Primarily, you will learn that black people love reruns, and if you're lucky, you'll catch the Tyler Perry movie! I know the Internet Movie Database says Perry has written over ten films, and there may be several titles and even different casts, but if you've seen one Tyler Perry movie, you've experienced the entire cannon. The man has only made one film, and you can catch it on BET, repeatedly. — Baratunde R. Thurston

Rock'n'roll saved my soul. — Thurston Moore

We have all of us the two natures - the brother and the sister! Not one of us is quite woman - not one of us is all man! — Katherine Cecil Thurston

My mind is turning into kind of a fine gelatinous ball of pepper — Thurston Moore

A lot of the lyrical ideas do have a lot of meaning in a way, although it is somewhat abstracted. — Thurston Moore

We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. — Baratunde R. Thurston

A night journey is essentially a thing of possibilities. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

Mathematics is an art of human understanding. — William Thurston

Today, when I think back on the early days and months of Thurston's and my relationship, I wonder whether you can truly love, or be loved back, by someone who hides who they are. — Kim Gordon

Cynicism ... is the trade-mark of failure ... — Katherine Cecil Thurston

I think mathematics is a vast territory. The outskirts of mathematics are the outskirts of mathematical civilization. There are certain subjects that people learn about and gather together. Then there is a sort of inevitable development in those fields. You get to the point where a certain theorem is bound to be proved, independent of any particular individual, because it is just in the path of development. — William Thurston

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. — Thurston Moore

For just as the virtue of wealth will bring out the evil of avarice, so will the evil of poverty bring out the virtue of self-respect. In this world, there is as much good that comes out of evil as ever stands by itself alone. This, in fact, is the need of evil, that out of it may lift the good. — Ernest Temple Thurston

The saddest human experience is to view alone the scenes one has viewed through other eyes - to walk solitary where one has walked in company - to have its particular barbed shaft aimed at one from every stick and stone that mark familiar ways. — Katherine Cecil Thurston

All other beer is ass, and I will not put in the the work to acquire the taste for things that taste like ass. — Baratunde R. Thurston

My family life and early political life - being exposed to the news constantly, being enrolled in an Afrocentric education program, and doing the extracurriculars I did - played a huge role in me finding my path. — Baratunde Thurston