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

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

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

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.