Top 11 Quotes & Sayings by Bruce Pavitt

Indie rock is very healthy, there's a lot of diversity and a lot of creativity, but it does not have the revolutionary spirit of the late-70s punk scene in regards to design and politics and fashion and stuff like that.

I can fully understand [that] artists want to be able to pay their bills. As a fan of art, and art as a way to shift dialogue and address cultural issues, there's a part of me that's really, really saddened by that and can't really relate to it.

I had no real photography experience, thankfully. I consciously took a lot of crowd shots. I was influenced by Seattle photographer Charles Peterson, who always seemed to incorporate fans in his live band shots.

Music careerists from Seattle would typically move to the closest media center, which was L.A.

I think in times of crisis it's the artists' responsibility to dig a little deeper.

The idea of having an indie rock "career" while living in a remote backwater like Seattle was too ridiculous to contemplate. It was simply about having adventures, one day at a time, one song at a time.

There's no school you can go to where you can study how to run a record label. Every day was a learning experience.

People are hard-wired for tribal identity.

I think so much of our society is geared towards mainstream media and pop culture and so forth. And there's a huge divide between the artist and the fan. And with indie culture that wall is removed. You actually do see the musicians walking around enjoying the show. It's a distinctly different culture and for the 99% of Nirvana fans that caught up with them with Nevermind, my book is gonna give them a whole different take on Kurt [Cobain] and the band.

I love the dynamic contrast between the spontaneous shots and the more formal, pro-rock-star photos.

I was a history major in school. I review the past a lot and think about music history and how culture unfolds.