Things I Learned Along The Way — Huck's Fiftieth Special collects lessons learned and creative advice from fifty of the most inspiring people we know. Each day we'll be sharing a new excerpt from the magazine. Today: How former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore found craziness and creativity, but most importantly community, when he arrived in New York City at the height of punk.

#6 – Thurston Moore

As the frontman of the seminal Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore helped cultivate a DIY music scene that broke indie overground. After moving to New York City, he idolised the icons of punk, whose example helped set the template for Sonic Youth. Community, he reflects, is everything:

“In those days you had to go to the city to get recognised for your work. The cities were impoverished so it didn’t necessitate having money so much, you could sort of live with all the other impoverished artists. And there was a certain glory to that. It was romantic. There was no ambition towards making money. There were ambitions towards being recognised but the idea of doing it for any sort of revenue was unheard of. Moving to New York, my models were people like Lou Reed, Richard Hell and Patti Smith. And these were people who were living hand to mouth, they had no money. But they certainly had recognition. They were very honourable people. Your goal was to be recognised for your work, not how much money you made. But that changed. Every country needed to save its cities so they were turned into high-rent residential territories.”

This is just a short excerpt from Huck’s Fiftieth Special, a collection of fifty personal stories from fifty inspiring lives.

Grab a copy now to read all fifty stories in full. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss another issue.