Bernard Sumner

“Joy Division finished the 1970s on a high. Our debut album, 'Unknown Pleasures,' was doing well; we'd just finished a hugely enjoyable and successful tour. The band's profile was higher than...”

“I'm terrible with decisions. And I can't make myself do something I don't like. I can't knuckle under.”

“As human beings, we all mature physically from childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood, but our emotions lag behind.”

“If you're a lead singer, then you can't afford to be sensitive. On stage, everyone looks at the lead singer, even if you don't want them to - in America, they have those massive follow spots...”

“We played at a festival in Mexico City, at the same time as another famous artist, and I reckon we had 55,000 people watching New Order; the other had 7,000. I think from that I've discovere...”

“I get writer's block all the time. The only way I can write what I consider to be good lyrics is to put myself through the mill.”

“I was interested in Prozac from a personal point of view because I can be a bit moody - things do get on top of me sometimes - so I was quite keen to find out what it would do to my personal...”

“In New Order, I played about 95% of the synths. It's not much fun for the other guys in the band when I'm playing my synth parts.”

“If you hear a New Order track that's mostly electronic, it's generally come about through one person sitting at a computer and programming it.”

“I think New Order have got their own sound. But what we like to do is experiment, using dance music and other things.”

“New Order has always been a hybrid band. We always mixed guitar, bass, drums with electronic.”

“The story of New Order is all about learning from our mistakes.”

“I always felt like there were always egos involved when I was trying to get music finished in New Order. Sometimes it would feel like I was running through water.”

“There were certain things I couldn't do with New Order without upsetting the rest of the band, so I started to write some solo stuff.”

“I'm sure every time I bring something out that isn't New Order, people say it sounds like New Order.”

“I like a challenge. I like learning new skills because I didn't learn much at school.”

“If you go out and just play the old stuff and never write new stuff, you're not really a complete musician, you're a performer.”

“It's disrespectful to the older generation to have long hair. They fought in two world wars; they didn't fight for us to grow our hair and look like girls.”

“I saw the Sex Pistols, and they were terrible.”

“I entered music at a poppy level.”