"I'd put a lot of work into playing guitar and was thinking I was pretty damn good. But Hendrix came along and destroyed everyone."

"We wouldn't have put it out with the name Queen on it if we didn't think it was musically up to scratch."

"What we were trying to do differently was this sort of layered sound."

"When we were touring heavily in America, we based ourselves there for a couple of years, but now we're all back here and it seems to be the place."

"I think Hammer's very cool: he has a great voice and great presence."

"Doing Made In Heaven was like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, but I wouldn't have put my seal of approval on it if I hadn't thought it was up to standard."

"A Queen track has those big, thick, block harmonies."

"I think Queen tribute bands are great. However, we have to keep them at arm's length, otherwise it could be too dangerous."

"I don't surf the net in general. I have someone do it for me instead, because I find it sluggish."

"This man (FreddieMercury) truly possessed the greatest voice in the history of rock. Journalists, culture experts and analysts have already made several hundred comments on this topic and nothing can be added here."

"My children hate me being such a big star. It's very hard for them to have a father who is always in the public eye."

"My big hobby is photography. I collect stereo photographs from the 19th century."

"You want to go in the steam bath to get your vocals sounding well, but you don't want your fingers to get soft."

"I've always lived in that guitar world. I have noticed kids being more into the real essence of guitar music now."

"For a time I didn't want to answer any questions about Queen. I'd like to be viewed as something alive and relevant, not some fossil."

"The potential audience seems to be dwindling in the states. I was kind of embarrassed for the band because of the size of the audience."

"If I go to places where other people are playing, I often get up and play myself. I just enjoy the sound and feel of playing."

"I had this idea... I wanted the sound to sing and have that thickness but yet still have an edge so that it could articulate. So my dad and I designed the guitar... the one that was made from an old fireplace."

"Queen had its time and place, and at the moment I'm not concentrating on that era."

"We've done "an "arrangement with an orchestra, but I think the best stuff tends to come when it's just the four of us."

"I think a lot of people would be better off in America, where at least you would find some radio station somewhere that would play you."

"I don't think anybody comes close to The Beatles, including Oasis"

"My mum says I wanted to be a surgeon, but I don't remember that. I think from the time I knew what was happening, I wanted to be a guitar player."

"I tend not to write on guitar very often. I tend to start off with keyboards."

"A good video can make all the difference"

"To my mind Keep Yourself Alive was never really satisfactory. Never had that magic that it should have had."

"I'm hopeless at playing scales. Try and be instinctive first and analytic afterwords, although it's good to study the theory of music."

"Sometimes if the guitar is the last thing to go on, it's very fresh."

"I'm pretty basic as far as technique is concerned. I don't use many gadgets, and I like the sound my guitar makes, anyway."

"There's nothing I'm embarrassed about"

"I'm a much better musician than astronomer. I think the world got the right choice."

"I despise the Lottery. There's less chance of you becoming a millionaire than there is of getting hit on the head by a passing asteroid."

"On the first few albums the songs would grow into strange shapes."

"You got blood on your face, you big disgrace, waving your banner all over the place."

"Everybody thought I was a bit of an eccentric for wanting to be out there looking at the stars, but I still do"

"I'm the nice guy who sits there signing everything that's put in front of me."

"There are times when I've been feeling something and played a solo that I've never been able to repeat."

"I'm into paradoxes. I wanted to make an album about them, but the group told me I was a pretentious fart. They were right."

"Astronomy's much more fun when you're not an astronomer"

"I was an incurable romantic then, same as I am now. I was always pining away after somebody"

"I have to build my own boat this time. It's a big sea out there, and I have a pretty small boat. I have a lot of belief in it."

"I have to build my own boat this time. It's a big sea out there, and I have a pretty small boat. I have a lot of belief in it."

"When I'm gone, people will no doubt remember me for Queen, but I would much rather be remembered for attempting to change the way we treat our fellow creatures."

"I tend to be not a person who does everything right all the time."

"I'm not a person for sitting on beaches. What would I do?"

"We do play to our audience. It's very important. You can't create music in a vacuum."

"The first nine albums there was never a Synthesiser, never any Orchestra. There was never any other player except us on the albums."

"Mantovani was a great influence on me."

"I was actually perfectly happy when I had no money, which lasted right up until we had a hit with Killer Queen, in 1974. I never wanted for anything."

"I spent 20 years of my life building up Queen, and now I'm spending years of my life trying to get away from it."