Joy Division Quotes

I grew up listening to bands like the Cure, Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance - these are the bands that I actually grew up with, and I always had these things in my taste, too. And I always loved industrial music as well: I listened to Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Cabaret Voltaire. And shoegaze bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

Ian Curtis was a young genius.

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

New Order never celebrated anything to do with Joy Division.

I was very good friends with Ian Curtis from Joy Division. In fact, I was the last person he spoke with before he died.

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

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

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.

Los Angeles produced the Beach Boys. Dusseldorf produced Kraftwerk. New York produced Chic. Manchester produced Joy Division.

When I play a gig and look out at the audience, you're literally looking at a sea of Joy Division T-shirts.

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.

My favorite band is probably The Cure. We can throw Talking Heads in there too, I listen to them a lot. But The Cure.

Joy Division sounded like Manchester: cold, sparse and, at times, bleak.

In 1979, I moved to England and photographed Joy Division and Bowie and Beefheart. At that time I got images that I felt had that special, well - power is a big word to say - more like intimacy and ambition that outlasted the photo shoot. I felt that they would have a longer life.

When I listen to Joy Division, it doesn't sound particularly English.

Even though the hero of emo is Morrissey, the great song of emo is 'Love Will Tear Us Apart.' An emo soundtrack would introduce Joy Division's music to a whole new generation.

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 wanted to move away from Holland for my work because I felt that things would be better for me in England. But when I heard Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures', that pushed me towards making the move and making it real. I met them within 12 days of moving to England.

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.

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

In the high-stakes and elitist world of music collecting and fandom, we operate from an ab ovo perspective. The seed, the first incarnation - that is the most pure, the most lauded. Minutemen trumps Firehose, Throwing Muses beats Belly, Joy Division over New Order, Operation Ivy ruled Rancid, Undertones instead of That Petrol Emotion.

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

Factory Records would not have existed and my life would not have been what it was without Joy Division.

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

What is remarkable about Joy Division is the way they are bereft of two of the mainstays of most other rock and pop: longing and supplication.