Quotes & Sayings About Joy Division

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. — Peter Hook

[Photography is a] hair-raising joy ride in a medium that, despite being a mechanical trick, can break down the division between mind and matter like a superhero, or an artist. — Philip-Lorca DiCorcia

I was very into New Order, Joy Division, all of that when I was younger. I had a lot of bootlegs that I saved up my pocket money to buy. I had all the obscure early EPs. — Dylan Moran

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. — Anton Corbijn

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

Some day you will look back on these days as the happiest of your life. You will forget your financial struggles. You will forget the unfair division of duties. You will forget feeling trapped and smothered, imagining that you are in a loveless marriage. You will only remember the joy of a young family, working together making your way through an unfamiliar world. Appreciate what you have now.
pg vi — Michael Ben Zehabe

Antarctica, one of the things that was so remarkable about it was that the ice itself is a kind of pure geometry, so say, for example, if I was facing someone wearing I don't know, a Joy Division t-shirt with the mountains on it or something like that. — DJ Spooky

There are so many bootlegged Joy Division/Martin Hannett tapes, a lot of really bad bootlegs on the Internet. — Peter Hook

The members of Joy Division likely weren't meditating on Frank Lloyd Wright when they took the stage in Manchester but those flat-fronted black cotton trousers and narrow cut shirts didn't come from nowhere. Peter Saville, who designed all of Factory's records, understood in perfectly well: the iconic weight of black and white balanced against the release of splendour, in this case the dark magnificence of the music itself. Which might describe the tension of Protestant affect more generally: all guardedness and restraint until the eruption of an unextirpated beauty wakes us for a moment from the dream of efficiency. — Adam Haslett

Take a chance and step outside. Lose some sleep and say you tried. Meet frustration face to face. A point of view creates more waves. - JOY DIVISION (1979) — Jaime Levy

When I was growing up, albums were my closest friends, as sad as that may sound - Joy Division's 'Closer,' or Echo and the Bunnymen's 'Heaven Up Here' ... I had a more intimate relationship with those records than I did with most of the people in my life. — Moby

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. — Peter Hook

There was a greater truth - that of a glorious struggle, hard-fought and hard-won, in which many fell martyrs and countless others made sacrifices, dreaming of the day India would be free. That day had come. The people of India saw that too, and on 15 August - despite the sorrow in their hearts for the division of their land danced in the streets with abandon and joy. — Bipan Chandra

The things that we've learned are no longer enough. — Ian Curtis

Now I don't know why, but Morrissey had always hated Joy Division. Maybe Rob got it right when after a lively debate as the cameras were turned off he turned to Morrissey and said, 'The trouble with you, Morrissey, is that you've never had the guts to kill yourself like Ian. You're fucking jealous.' You should have seen his face as he stormed off. I laughed me bollocks off. — Peter Hook

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. — Peter Hook

I don't think the Cure liked us. I think they resented us in some way, because we'd managed to stay cool, credible, and independent and they'd, well, sort of sold out a bit. The problem was on their side; it wasn't on our side. But I think they thought, Wish we were Joy Division. — Peter Hook

Ian was living in fairyland and in our own way we all helped him to stay there. — Deborah Curtis

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. — Peter Hook

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. — Peter Hook

All being, it seemed, was built on opposites, on division. Man or woman, vagabond or citizen, lover or thinker - no breath could both be in and out, none could be man and wife, free and yet orderly, knowing the urge of life and the joy of intellect. Always the one paid for the other, though each was equally precious and essential. — Hermann Hesse

I would be more familiar with Janet Jackson than I was with the Teardrop Explodes or Joy Division, because I didn't want to listen to my competitors for fear of nicking ideas off them. — Robert Smith

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. — Peter Hook

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. — Peter Hook

Joy multiplies when it is shared among friends, but grief diminishes with every division. That is life. — R.A. Salvatore

I started listening to the Cure around the time I discovered Joy Division and, like Joy Division, they have shaped my taste in all sorts of dark and dreary ways. — Danielle Trussoni

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. — Peter Hook

How unhappy does one have to be before living seems worse than dying? — Deborah Curtis

It's like never hearing a Joy Division album or something. I'm finally watching Twin Peaks, and I'm so into it. — Emily Ratajkowski

title from the second album of the introspective beat group Joy Division, Closer — Graham Saunders

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

I have a tattoo of Joy Division on my chest, and I like One Direction. — Jamie Blackley

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. — Peter Hook

Surprised by joy- impatient as the Wind
I turned to share the transport
Oh! with whom
But thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,
That spot which no vicissitude can find?
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind
But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
Even for the least division of an hour,
Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
To my most grievous loss?
That thought's return
Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,
Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,
Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;
That neither present time, nor years unborn
Could to my sight that heavenly face restore. — William Wordsworth

The music was so mournful and emotional that it seemed like the only suitable thing to play. — Deborah Curtis

There's a very fine line between being artistic and being a dickhead - it's like love and hate. — Peter Hook

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. — Peter Hook

That was the thing about Joy Division: writing the songs was dead easy because the group was really balanced; we had a great guitarist, a great drummer, a great bass player, a great singer. — Peter Hook

But Mary had not come into the world to be sad or to help another to be sad. Sorrowful we may often have to be, but to indulge in sorrow is either not to know or to deny God our Saviour. True, her heart ached for Letty; and the ache immediately laid itself as close to Letty's ache as it could lie; but that was only the advance-guard of her army of salvation, the light cavalry of sympathy: the next division was help; and behind that lay patience, and strength, and hope, and faith,and joy. This last, modern teachers, having failed to regard it as a virtue, may well decline to regard as a duty; but he is a poor Christian indeed in whom joy has not at least a growing share, and Mary was not a poor Christian--at least, for the time she had been learning, and as Christians go in the present aeon of their history. — George MacDonald

Comparison is a trap. It will kill our joy. It will rob us of our peace. It makes us act foolish and stupid. It causes dissension and division in the body of Christ. It creates terrible tension in our relationships with others. So here's what you need to focus on: Let God use you the way he sees fit to do so. Embrace what he is doing in and through your life. — Kurt W. Bubna

Joy Division was scheduled to play at Tier 3, but Ian Curtis killed himself a week before the gig. — Kim Gordon

Atmosphere" is a massive song. A lot of people say it's their favorite Joy Division song, but it's not mine; it reminds me too much of Ian, like it's his death march or something, and it figures that it's one of the most popular songs to play at funerals: Robbie Williams has got "Angels" for weddings and we've got "Atmosphere" for funerals. — Peter Hook

Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people. People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers - a prize for the best Halloween costume, grades in school, gold stars - and on up through the university. On the job, people, teams, and divisions are ranked, reward for the top, punishment for the bottom. Management by Objectives, quotas, incentive pay, business plans, put together separately, division by division, cause further loss, unknown and unknowable. — Peter M. Senge

I just want to carry on the way we [ Joy Division] are, I think. Basically, we want to play and enjoy what we like playing. I think when we stop doing that I think, well, that will be the time to pack it in. That'll be the end. — Ian Curtis

This is my fundamental teaching: that there is no division between this and that. That is contained in this, the other shore is contained in this shore. You need not go anywhere. If you can be joyous, flowing, alive, sensitive, orgasmic, this very shore immediately is transformed into the other shore ... this very world the paradise, this very body the Buddha. — Osho

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

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

Joy Division throbbed in the background. — David Mitchell

The true division of humanity is this: the luminous and the dark.
To diminish the number of the dark, to increase the number of the luminous, there is the aim.That is why we cry: education, knowledge! to learn to read is to kindle a fire; every syllable spelled sparkles.
But whoever say light does not necessarily say joy.
There is suffering in light; an excess burns. Flames is hostile to the wing. To burn and yet to fly, this is the miracle of genius — Victor Hugo

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. — Peter Hook

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. — Anton Corbijn

A really spiritual person will live life as an art, will create a deep harmony between the body and the consciousness. And this is the greatest art there is. His life will be a joy to see. And he will be fragrant, for the sheer reason that there is no split in his being. The very unity makes him organic; the wound of division is healed. — Rajneesh

New Order never celebrated anything to do with Joy Division. — Peter Hook

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

If a person can accept reality as it is, in that very acceptance, all tension disappears. Anguish, anxiety, despair - they all simply evaporate. And when there is no anxiety, no tension, no fragmentariness, no division, no schizophrenia, then suddenly there is joy. Then suddenly there is love, then suddenly there is compassion. These are not ideals; these are very natural phenomena. — Osho