Creativity Quote by Thurston Moore

There is a whole survival strategy tucked into that throwaway bruise: "Kids think of us as being totally over the hill". Thurston Moore isn’t begging for relevance so much as naming the physics of it. In rock culture, age isn’t just a number; it’s a verdict, delivered by the newest audience with the confidence of a first guitar. The line works because it treats that verdict as both absurd and inevitable, the way punk once treated authority itself. Now the authority is time, and Moore is on the receiving end of the same sneer Sonic Youth used to weaponize.

The specific intent feels defensive-but-wry: he’s acknowledging generational turnover before anyone else can use it against him. That preemptive self-deprecation is a classic musician’s move, especially for an artist whose credibility was built on being ahead of the curve. The subtext is sharper: youth culture doesn’t merely prefer the new, it needs the old to look pathetic so the new can feel urgent. Calling it "totally over the hill" mimics the exaggeration of teen judgment, letting Moore vent while also mocking the absolutism of it.

Context matters: alternative rock’s institutions have hardened into canon, festivals, reissues, documentary nostalgia. Moore’s line catches the weird moment where yesterday’s outsiders become heritage acts without ever agreeing to be museums. It’s not just fear of fading out; it’s the insult of being filed away while you’re still making noise.