Peter Hook

You look at 30 Seconds to Mars, and you don't think, 'Ooh, I bet they're angry.' No one really does anger these days. I suppose it's a turn-off.

That's it really, at the moment I wouldn't say I was influenced by any one thing in particular.

Over the years, Joy Division has become a huge part of music culture.

My mother used to always say to me, 'Do naught, get naught.' It's an adage that I hold by. If you don't do anything, you can't really expect anything.

It was nice doing my own Joy Division book to be able to put forward the fact that Ian was actually quite a nice guy and very hardworking, ambitious and loyal. But the thing was, he was battling such a dreadful illness in an era when they really didn't know how to treat it.

I am man enough to be able to admit my own mistakes. I think that is an important trait to have.

I have a hard time getting my head around the idea of playing 'The Perfect Kiss' in my 50s. I can't quite get there.

I prefer it when I can intimidate the audience rather than the audience intimidate me. I've been lucky in my career to have both.

The rise of the iPod meant that digital music became the norm, It's sad, but you can still find the real stuff out there if you look for it!

Old men are cantankerous: they like to get their own way.

But then I quite enjoy when something goes wrong, because when I watch DJs that take it very seriously, it's nice when you make a mistake and laugh about it.

I play a lot of hard, uncompromising dance music; it can be anything from dance to rock to reggae.

To be in one band that changed the world musically is pretty good, but to be in two bands that changed the world musically, that's amazing.

'Unknown Pleasures' is a very important record for me. It was the first LP that I recorded.

Actually when we stopped New Order I was busier than ever. The only gaps have been while we've been writing.

Knowing very little about a band only adds to the allure.

What I've learned is that life is a balance between idealism and realism.

Once you made that decision to split New Order up, you were like, 'Woo-hoo! I better get out there and get a job.'

The thing with Joy Division's music is that each member was playing like a separate line. We hardly ever played together; we all played separately. But when you put it together, it was like the ingredients in a cake.

We need to talk about what we are going to do and see and decide. We'll have to wait and see.

New Order never celebrated anything to do with Joy Division.

Dance music tends to be a solitary affair.

I was reading an article about Kings of Leon's bass player, who said that he was directly influenced by Joy Division and by me. I was like, 'Woah!' It surprised me. It's a great compliment.

Bass players are always the underdogs of the band, but I made sure that I was never viewed as one. I went out of my way to steal as much limelight as I could.

Sarcasm is a Manchester trait.

'24 Hour Party People' was a comedy, and I knew that from the beginning.

There are seven songs finished and on par with any that are on Siren's.

And they do tend to be fast and up, because that's how I like to drive.

I've been very grateful and humbled by the fact that young people really dig Joy Division's music. It's a great testament to the chemistry and the songwriting prowess between the four original members.

To me, New Order split up when Bernard and I stopped writing together. We started Joy Division together; we started New Order together.

Music was such an important part of everyone's life in the '60s and '70s, but everywhere you played, the music was dreadful.

When I'm not playing music, certainly the last thing I want to do is listen to music!

What was punk all about? To me, it was if you really want to do something, go ahead and do it.

Accept what you did do, and live with it.

When you balance it against New Order, New Order don't work or tour relentlessly. We definitely work in our own way and sometimes it's a bit too slow for me, so I like to plan ahead and fill my time up.

I'd rather have ten people who are mad for it than ten thousand who aren't.

Originally, I didn't play any New Order when I deejayed. I suppose it comes from being a little embarrassed or humble or whatever. But people were coming to see me because of New Order, so in the end, I had to realize that if they were using my name on the poster, then maybe I should play some of the music.

I just like keeping busy and having ten things on the go.

'Movement' sounded like Joy Division, but 'Power, Corruption & Lies' is the first New Order record.

Most people have just heard Joy Division on record. And Joy Division on record was completely different than it was live.

I regularly go to concerts with my children sharing the music.

I love that young bands will do anything to succeed.

I must confess that over my career, I've actually downplayed the importance of DJs. It's such a different art form. Then all of a sudden you try it, and you think, 'Good God, these guys do work.' I used to be very cynical and very blase about it. I can only apologize.

They amaze me most of those remixes. Some of them are crap. But every time I complain, someone comes up and says they are for a different market that you don't understand. Some of the New Order ones are really great, though.

I don't pretend to be Joy Division or New Order. What I do is very straight forward: it's an interpretation and a celebration of the music, with different people. Everyone looks at it and knows exactly what I'm doing.

Yeah, I still feel as if I have things to do really. I'm not ready to stop.

The break-up of a relationship is always difficult, especially a 30-year one.

It's quite ironic I suppose, it's that thing about being in a group when you all start out as friends and then invariably end up hating each other. So I just thought they needed telling really, in case they were labouring under the apprehension that they were still friends.

When you've travelled for 34 years as a musician, you do all the culture stuff when you're young and full of energy. In the middle stage, you indulge too much and are scared of daylight. Then, in the final stage, you've seen it all, so you tend to take things a lot easier.

Nobody is the same. If we were all the same it would be bloody boring.

I've stayed in hotels where you were scared to even put your feet on the floor, or had to sleep in a chair.

It's the same misconception I used to have. I meet people and think they're millionaires and they're not.

Bands don't play the whole LP. They play a selection of the songs that they like.

The worst words I could ever hear as a bass player was, 'Can you play the root notes?'

At my age, I only travel business class because I just don't bend anymore; my body can't cope with it.

We've had a problem finding a vocalist. We have not been lucky yet to find the one. I think the problem is that the three of us have such a pedigree of vocalist, that if we come out with someone that's not good we'll obviously be slated!

I'm not a good flyer. Because I do it so much, I think the odds of something going wrong are not in my favour.

I read one too many books about Joy Division by people who weren't there, and they always seem to dwell on the dark, the intense, the miserable image of Joy Division.

I think that you have to bear in mind that music is about escape, and it's not unreasonable to think the music business would be based around escapism.

It was an amazing mistake to lose 10p on every copy because your sleeve is so expensive.

When you DJ, you're just on your own, which is nice because there's no argument.

I look back on Joy Division very fondly indeed. I know that, of course, the band came to a tragic end, but that does not change the fact that Joy Division was a great band to be a part of.

The chemistry involved made everything Factory did quite special.

People go and hide, but I don't. I'm a fighter.

Great music seems to come from a lot of angst, and that angst is from great musicians getting together with intense chemistry. When that chemistry isn't there, people tend not to write great music.

A poetic, sensitive, tortured soul, the Ian Curtis of the myth - he was definitely that.

The reason Joy Division and New Order are as influential and successful as they are is because of the unique playing of all the individuals.

I've watched so-called 'New Order' playing in Auckland, and Tom Chapman is miming along to my bass on tape... He's got his fingers on the low, and you can hear my high bass in the background. So he's miming.

We don't to be some kind of rock supergroup for the sake of being a supergroup. You want to change things and say something fresh and new so you appeal to people as a new group.

America stopped making vinyl and phased out the single but Germany held out and refused. Warner's never phased out vinyl in Germany. Now America imports it!

The scary thing is when I did my set in Texas everyone was excited. The show was great. I was done and the next DJ put something on vinyl and the difference! The quality!!

'Love Will Tear Us Apart' is very simply written.

I think people expect mud at festivals, I think you'd be asking for your money back if you didn't get it.

You don't get many chances in the world, and you don't want to throw them away.

It's really nice to be able to do what I'm doing without having to compromise with another musician.

I've never been out of work in my whole life.

The fact is that you don't want to be away forever, but you want to lead a normal life.

Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!

One of the great things about education is that it should stop you making mistakes - and I have made a lot of mistakes.

When you get the right people together, writing music becomes very effortless.