Brian May Quotations

The music itself is very challenging, so I've never really felt the lack of stimulation. I love to be creating; I love to be making things and solving problems, I suppose, and when I'm not, then I'm not an incredibly good person to be around. If I'm not busy, then I think I would be disaster. That's just the way things are.

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 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 biggest emotion in creation is the bridge to optimism.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Amazing uke playing to be relished.

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.

Not for a million - years. I mean, I like the INXS boys, but I found the process very degrading, really. Reality television has eaten away at our standards of excellence. I don't like this whole culture, which has evolved, of TV being the king.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Mantovani was a great influence on me.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

A good video can make all the difference

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.

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.

There's nothing I'm embarrassed about

I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end's off a knitting needle and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.

George Harrison was a fabulous, fabulous, fabulous guitarist, and a wonderful example of what a rock star should be. I totally revered him as an innovator. He was always fresh, daring, magnificently melodic, full of spiritual quality, and totally conscious of the chord structure beneath the solo. And he had the courage to play simple. He never took refuge in effects, or tried to impress with speed. I hope he knew how much we all loved and respected him.

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

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 think the popular view of Science is a solid body of truth, shared by a whole lot of learned men in a room, all agreeing on the answers to the questions of how the Universe works. Whereas nothing could be further from the truth!!! The one truth that I see emerging from the History of Science is that experiment has always surprised theorists. Einstein included!

What is left of your dream? Just the words on your stone. A man who learned how to teach then forgot how to learn.

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