Brian May Quotes

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

A good video can make all the difference

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Amazing uke playing to be relished.

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.

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

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

The biggest emotion in creation is the bridge to optimism.

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

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.

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.

There's nothing I'm embarrassed about.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mantovani was a great influence on me.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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