"If I upset some notions and went against established rules, that wasn't part of what I wanted to do. It wasn't my goal."

"James Stewart was so kind and considerate and had such personal integrity."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."