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Quotes from Freddie
(From 'Queen: In their own words' (1992) by Mick St Michael)

'The reason we're successful darling?
My Overall charisma of course'.

'It's stupid to say there is no such thing in boarding schools. All the things they say about them are more or less true. All the bullying and everything else. I've had the odd schoolmaster chasing me. It didn't shock me because somehow boarding schools...you're not confronted by it, you are just slowly aware of it. It's going through life.
   'There were times when I was young and green. It's a thing schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to elaborate any further.' - On brutality and homosexuality at boarding schools (1974)

'Art school teaches you to be more fashion conscious, to be always one step ahead.' (1971)

'I'm a man of extremes. I have a soft side and a hard side with not a lot in between. If the right person finds me I can be very vulnerable, a real baby, which is invariably when I get trodden on. But sometimes, I'm hard, and when I'm strong no-one can get to me.'

'Musicians aren't social rejects any more. If you mean 'Have I got upper class parents who put a lot of money into me? Was I spoilt? - no. My parents were very strict. I wasn't the only one. I've got a sister. I was at boarding school for nine years so I didn't see my parents that often. That background helped me a lot because it taught me to fend for myself.' (1974)

'I don't like the way my teeth protrude. I'm going to have them done, but I just haven't had the time. Apart from that.......I'm perfect.'

'I hate pockets in trousers. By the way, I do not wear a hose. My hose is my own. No coke bottle, nothing stuffed down there.' (1974)

'My nodules are still with me. I have these uncouth callouses growing in my interior (throat). From time to time they harm my vocal dexterity. At the moment, however, I am winning.
'I'm going easy on the red wine and the tour will be planned around my nodules. Actually, I came very near to having an operation but I didn't like the look of the doctor and I was a bit perturbed about having strange instruments forced down my throat.' (1975)

'I want my privacy, and I feel I've given a lot for it. It's like Greta Garbo isn't it?  Virgo, same star sign.'

'People are apprehensive when they meet me. They think I'm going to eat them. But underneath it all I'm quite shy.' (1976)

'I like leather, I rather fancy myself as a black panther.' (1977)

'Excess is part of my nature. Dullness is a disease. I really need danger and excitement. I've often been warned to stay away from clubs because they are too dangerous. But I revel in that - I'm never scared of putting myself out on a limb.

'Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it can damn well give it!'

'I've made no effort to become a guitar hero because I can't play the f***ing guitar!'

'The Jubilee's quite fun, isn't it? I love the Queen. I'm very patriotic. I love all this pomp, of course I do. I love it. She does outrageous things!'
On Queen Elizabeth's ll's Silver Jubilee (1977)

'Every person who makes a lot of money has a dream he wants to carry out, and I achieved that dream with this wonderful house. Whenever I watched Hollywood movies set in plush homes with lavish decor, I wanted that for myself, and now I've got it. But to me it was much more important to get the damn thing that to actually go and live in it. Maybe the challenge has worn off now. I'm very much like that - once I get something I'm not that keen on it any more. I still love the house, but the real enjoyment is that I've achieved it. Sometimes, when I'm alone at night, I imagine that when I'm 50 I'll creep into that house as my refuge, and then I'll start making it a home. Anyway, as it is, I can only spend 60 days a year in England for tax reasons.' (1981)

'I was wearing a white scarf and holding a glass of wine when I was introduced to Prince Andrew. But I was so nervous I didn't realise my scarf was dangling in the drink. there I was trying to be really cool and suddenly the Prince said,  'Freddie, I don't think you really want this getting wet.'  He squeezed out the scarf and that broke the ice between us. I said, 'Thank goodness you've put me at my ease. Now I can use the odd bit of dirty language.' He really got into the spirit of things and even had a dance. He's really quite hip in those sort of situations. I have a lot of respect for Royalty, I'm a tremendous patriot.' (1981)

'It's not a question of money anymore. I spend money like it's nothing. You know, I could be penniless tomorrow, but I'd get back somehow.' (1982)

'I can be very soft, slushy and mushy.' (1983)

'If I tried that on, people would start yawning. 'Oh God, here's Freddie saying he's gay because it's very trendy.'
After 'I Want To Break Free' video (1984)

For God's sake, if I want to make big confessions about my sex life, would I go to The Sun, of all papers, to do it? There's no f***ing way I'd do that. I'm too intelligent.' (1985)

'I was caught up in being a star and I thought 'This is the way a star behaves'. Now I don't give a damn. I want to do things my way and have fun. If all my money ended tomorrow, I'd still go about like I had lots of money because that's what I used to do before. I'll always walk around like a Persian Poppinjay and no one's gonna stop me.
'I love living life to the full - that's my nature. Nobody tells me what to do.' (1985)

'I would have loved to have been on the Band Aid record, but I only heard about it in Germany. I don't know if they would have had me on the record anyway. I'm a bit old.' (1985)

'I never carry money, just like the real Queen. If I fancy something in a shop I always ask someone on our staff to buy it.'

'I can't carry on rocking the way I have done in the past. It is all too much. It's no way for a grown man to behave. I have stopped my nights of wild partying. That's not because I'm ill but down to age. I'm no spring chicken. Now I prefer to spend my time at home. It is a part of growing up.'

'The album track 'Living On My Own' is very me. I have to go around the world living in hotels. You can have a whole shoal of people you know looking after you, but in the end they all go away.
'But I'm not complaining. I'm living on my own time and having a boogie time.
'When you're a celebrity, it's hard to approach somebody and say 'Look, I'm normal underneath'. Then what happens is they tread all over me because by trying to be normal to somebody, suddenly I've come out of my shell and become far more vulnerable that most people.
'Because I'm successful and have a lot of money, a lot of greedy people prey on me. But that's something I've learned to deal with.
'I'm riddled with scars and I just don't want any more.'

'I've got a few good friends, a big house and I can go wherever I want.....but the more money you make the more miserable you get. It just so happens that I have lots of money.'

'I'm a very emotional person, a person of real extremes, and that's often destructive both to myself and others.'

'I love everybody, you know. I love all these beautiful brown bodies whoever they are. I think I'm a mother figure to many people. I love to share problems with people.'
In Brazil (1985)

'I'm just a musical prostitute my dear"