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.
New Order never celebrated anything to do with Joy Division.
My father was always Labour, and my mother was always Conservative, so I tended to sort of go in the middle.
A poetic, sensitive, tortured soul, the Ian Curtis of the myth - he was definitely that.
There are keyboard terrorists everywhere who hide behind a veil of anonymity to pursue their vicious slanders.
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!!
When you get the right people together, writing music becomes very effortless.
There are lots of Joy Division songs that are so powerful when played live, some of which we did either never play or played very rarely.
The fact is that you don't want to be away forever, but you want to lead a normal life.
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.
In the late '70s, the conditions that bands had to endure were, shall we say, not as civilized as they are today. People were a lot more aggressive back then. So there was definitely a lot of suffering for your art. But I would argue that was a good thing. Generally, people make better music when they suffer.
When I'm not playing music, certainly the last thing I want to do is listen to music!
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.
When you're fat and comfortable, your music is going to sound fat and comfortable.
One of the great things about education is that it should stop you making mistakes - and I have made a lot of mistakes.
To me, New Order split up when Bernard and I stopped writing together. We started Joy Division together; we started New Order together.
The interesting thing is that New Order finished on an okay note. It was only after we split that things got worse.
It's the same misconception I used to have. I meet people and think they're millionaires and they're not.
What was punk all about? To me, it was if you really want to do something, go ahead and do it.
Democracy for us tends to be has to do with who shouts the loudest!
'Unknown Pleasures' is a very important record for me. It was the first LP that I recorded.
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 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.
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!
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.
The break-up of a relationship is always difficult, especially a 30-year one.
I just like keeping busy and having ten things on the go.
For the first 18 months of Joy Division, we used our jobs to fund the band. We'd all chip in three, five quid to go and do a gig. But it was worth it. It was amazing we could afford to feed ourselves. But we were so creatively and artistically satisfied. You can't explain that to somebody who's never been there.
I've never been out of work in my whole life.
The worst words I could ever hear as a bass player was, 'Can you play the root notes?'
You don't get many chances in the world, and you don't want to throw them away.
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.
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.
And they do tend to be fast and up, because that's how I like to drive.
Actually when we stopped New Order I was busier than ever. The only gaps have been while we've been writing.
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.
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.
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!
People go and hide, but I don't. I'm a fighter.
Over the years, Joy Division has become a huge part of music culture.
Yeah, I still feel as if I have things to do really. I'm not ready to stop.
I am man enough to be able to admit my own mistakes. I think that is an important trait to have.
It's really nice to be able to do what I'm doing without having to compromise with another musician.
I love that young bands will do anything to succeed.
'Love Will Tear Us Apart' is very simply written.
There are so little outtakes from the Joy Division era. We didn't have much money. You couldn't be very generous in recording, so we were very thrifty in how we recorded. Everything was very, very well looked after financially because we just couldn't afford it.
I always do try to encourage my children to vote and at least exercise their right.
When you DJ, you're just on your own, which is nice because there's no argument.
