Brian May Quotes

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

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

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

The biggest emotion in creation is the bridge to optimism.

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 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

There's nothing I'm embarrassed about

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

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

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

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.

A good video can make all the difference

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.