Creativity Quote by Peter Hook

Peter Hook’s line has the throwaway swagger of a backstage aside, but it doubles as a tiny mission statement. “Fast and up” is ostensibly about driving, yet it reads like a credo for momentum: don’t coast, don’t descend, don’t get stuck in the slow lane of self-seriousness. The phrasing is tellingly plain, almost stubbornly unpoetic, which is exactly why it lands. Hook isn’t dressing it up as philosophy; he’s letting taste do the talking.

The subtext is control. “Because that’s how I like to drive” makes preference sound like principle: not an argument, not a justification, just a personal calibration of speed and altitude. It’s a musician’s way of describing feel. In band culture, especially in the post-punk ecosystem Hook emerged from, tempo and lift are politics. “Fast” signals urgency and attack; “up” signals release, the refusal to wallow. Even when the music is dark, the engine still pulls forward.

There’s also a quiet deflection at work. Hook frames intensity as habit rather than ego, a neat way to own a high-wire temperament without romanticizing it. He doesn’t claim it’s safer, smarter, or better. He claims it’s his. That blunt possession is the point: taste as identity, velocity as personality, and a life lived like a set list that never lets the room go flat.