"I had this big thing about guitar harmonies. I wanted to be the first to put proper three-part harmonies onto a record. That was an achievement."

"I go through major crises every few months, but then I have great peaks of belief and creativity. I'm a weird kind of animal."

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

"Einstein got most of the things right about black holes. I'm not an expert, I must admit."

"Each gig should be unique. You're always treading that line between keeping yourself fresh and giving people something they want to hear."

"At the moment the Queen stuff does sell really well, but there's no guarantee it'll go on forever."

"In print, people can do anything to you. Everything you do is picked apart. People love it; they're waiting for you to make a mistake."

"There's nothing I'm embarrassed about".""

"There are a lot of things in Queen albums that you don't expect; that's why we threw them in."

"The Wedding March has a bit of a death march in it."

"I like to go for a walk or swimming or in the garden when I can. It's a busy kind of life, but I guess I'm lucky."

"I just want to be able to play as fast as my brain goes, and my brain doesn't go all that fast."

"Every time I listen to Jeff Beck my whole view of guitar changes radically. He's way, way out, doing things you never expect."

"The guitar has a kind of grit and excitement possessed by nothing else."

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

"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."

"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."

"I never took sheet music seriously. I could do better myself just by listening to other people and using my own intuition."

"There is no way that you can ever really repeat something. I have this great belief that the magic of the moment can never be recaptured."

"From the beginning of Queen there was such momentum that I never had any time to do anything else. My energy was 95% focused on the band."

"Sanctions always hurt the poor, the weak, the children."

"There are times when I flick through magazines and think I'm in danger of becoming a prisoner of my own hair."

"Queen songs tend to be about very personal things: personal dreams and personal ambitions."

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

"I really thought I was pretty good before I saw Hendrix, and then I thought: Yeah, not so good."

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

"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."

"The guitar was my weapon, my shield to hide behind."

"The biggest emotion in creation is the bridge to optimism."

"I think music is about our internal life. It's part of the way people touch each other. That's very precious to me. And astronomy is, in a sense, the very opposite thing. Instead of looking inwards, you are looking out, to things beyond our grasp."

"Queen songs are not about the life of a rock star - they tend to be about the lives of normal people, which is why I think the songs connect so much. We're very lucky that they seemingly connect with every generation."

"It's wonderful for me to see what 'We Will Rock You' has done. 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are the Champions' have kind of transcended the normal framework of where music is listened to and appreciated - they've become part of public life, which I feel wonderful about."

"People have been rumouring that Queen are going to split up for the last eight years at least. I've got some great cuttings at home from people saying 'One thing is certain, Queen will no longer exist in a year's time.' And that was in 1973."