Mercury: "I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear."

Mercury: "The reason we're successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course."

Mercury: "I fall in love much too quickly and that results in me getting badly hurt. The problem with love is that you lose control and that is a very vulnerable state to be in."

Mercury: "One year of love is better than a lifetime alone."

Mercury: "And, we have no such thing as a budget anymore. Our manager freaks when we show him the bill. We're lavish to the bone, but all our money goes back into the product."

Mercury: "My sex drive is enormous. I sleep with men, women, cats- you name it."

Mercury: "You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man. And that is the most bitter type of loneliness, success has brought me world idolization and millions of pounds. But it’s prevented me from having the one thing we all need: A loving, ongoing relationship."

Mercury: "I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter."

Mercury: "I used to be just an old slag who [woke] up...and wondered who he wanted to f*ck today. I...lived for sex."

Mercury: "With us, I think a different environment always helps too. In the early days we used to go into the same studios all the time, but it really got you down after a while. Then there came a time when we went out of our way to go to different studios, and so the material was fresh."

Mercury: "I just lived for sex. I’m a very sexual person but I’m much more choosy now than I used to be."

Mercury: "I dress to kill, but tastefully."

Mercury: “I play on the bisexual thing because it’s something else, it’s fun. But I don’t put on the show because I feel I have to and the last thing I want to do is give people an idea of exactly who I am.”

Mercury: "I'm hopeless with money; I simply spend what I've got."

Mercury: "Can you imagine how terrible it is when you’ve got everything and you’re still desperately lonely? That is awful beyond words."

Mercury: "I’m a very emotional person, a person of real extremes, and that’s often destructive both to me and others."

Mercury: "Too much love will kill you just as sure as none at all."

Mercury: "I love the fact that I can make people happy, in any form. Even if it’s just an hour of their lives, if I can make them feel lucky or make them feel good, or bring a smile to a sour face, that to me is worthwhile."

Mercury: “I’m gay, so what?”

Mercury: "I’m possessed by love, but isn’t everybody?"

Mercury: "Oh, I was not made for heaven. No, I don’t want to go to heaven. Hell is much better. Think of all the interesting people you’re going to meet down there."

Mercury: "I think we are all princes of the universe."

Mercury: "In terms of love, you’re not in control and I hate that feeling. I seem to write a lot of sad songs because I’m a very tragic person. But there’s always an element of humor at the end."

Mercury: "It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, I feel good, and no one’s going to stop me now."

Mercury: "Because I'm such a forceful character, I feel that everything's got to be new. It was a completely new chemical reaction and so it had to have a new meaning and new title, so that we felt fresh."

Mercury: “Four cocks fighting… Ooh, it’s getting nice, this!”

Mercury: "I am a romantic, but I do put up a barrier around myself, so it is hard for people to get in and to know the real me."

Mercury: "I won't be a rock star. I will be a legend."

Mercury: "It would destroy all the mystery if I always explained everything about myself. To actually come out with it and go into huge detail about all those things, to be honest, is a bit beneath me. I have maybe a wider sexual taste than most people, but that’s as far as I’m going to go."

Mercury: "I guess I've always lived the glamorous life of a star. It 's nothing new - I used to spend down to the last dime."

Mercury: "I'm very emotional; I think I may go mad in several years' time."

Mercury: "Onstage, I am a devil. But I'm hardly a social reject."

Mercury: “If I want to make big confessions about my sex life, would I go to The Sun, of all papers, to do it?”

Mercury: "Back in the old days, we were often compared to Led Zeppelin. If we did something with harmony, it was the Beach Boys. Something heavy was Led Zeppelin."

Mercury: "I never thought of myself as the leader, the most important person, perhaps."

Mercury: "I have fun with my clothes onstage; it's not a concert you're seeing, it's a fashion show."

Mercury: "We've gone overboard on every Queen album. But that's Queen."

Mercury: "In the early days, we just wore black onstage. Very bold, my dear. Then we introduced white, for variety, and it simply grew and grew."

Mercury: "If we're weird onstage, I don't know what you'd call the Tubes."

Mercury: "When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance."

Mercury: "We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear."

Mercury: "Money may not buy happiness, but it can damn well give it!"

Mercury: "It destroys the soul to hear that you're all hype, that you have no talent, and that your whole career has been contrived."

Mercury: "Years ago, I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name. But it's regal, obviously, and -sounds splendid."

Mercury: "You know, I designed the Queen crest. I simply combined all the creatures that represent our star signs-and I don't even believe in astrology."

Mercury: "When the whole point of Queen was to be original."

Mercury: “I’m very happy with my relationship at the moment and I honestly couldn’t ask for better… I’ve got a very understanding relationship. It sounds so boring, but it’s wonderful… Now I have a hairdresser husband, dear! I’ve finally found that niche I was looking for all my life, and no fucker in this universe is going to upset it.”

Mercury: "What will I be doing in twenty years' time? I'll be dead, darling! Are you crazy?"

Mercury: "You know, I designed the Queen crest. I simply combined all the creatures that represent our star signs-and I don't even believe in astrology."

Mercury: "I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs."

Mercury: "One night Roger was in a foul mood and he threw his entire bloody drumset across the stage. The thing only just missed me - I might have been killed."

Mercury: "I think every time you make an album, it's a new burst of energy and we make such different albums. When we undertake them it's like a new project every time. It's very fresh, If we were coming up with the same old thing every time, thinking it would be readily accepted, or whatever, that would be playing it safe."

Mercury: "We were disliked by the press in the early days because they couldn't put their finger on us, and that was the case with Zeppelin as well."

Mercury: "We don’t do it for the money… we do it for the music."

Mercury: "You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be."

Mercury: "As far as I'm concerned. I write songs which I think are basically fodder. I've said this before. Songs are like buying a new dress or shirt, you wear it then you discard it. A certain few classics will always remain, but as far as I'm concerned, what I've written in the past is finished and done with. I prefer to forget my past very quickly. All I do is think of the future."

Mercury: "In fact, we all need danger and excitement."

Mercury: "Sometimes I think, Oh my god, they must think I'm working so hard to cultivate all this, but I'm not. I'd hate to live under false pretenses. The kind of image I put across is not planned or anything, it's something that has progressed over the years. It's something I live by. It's authentic."