BRUCE DICKINSON

I'm not going to do any more solo touring.

I don't like being recognised, I have no interest in being famous at all, I just do what I do. If I could be like Captain Kirk and beam myself up and then beam myself down, I would!

In my teenage years I was put off the idea of a career in flying, because I'd convinced myself that you had to be a boffin with degrees in maths and physics, which were my weakest subjects.

Apart from death and taxes, the one thing that's certain in this life is that I'll never be a fashion icon.

If it all just happens like this for the rest of my life, it's going to be one endless Groundhog Day. I determined that I was not prepared to submit to this regime, so I thought I had to do something about it.

I never intended to become a professional pilot. But, as I became more curious about aircraft, and, well, not being John Travolta, I realized that the only way I was ever going to fly a jet is if I got a job.

I've had a bit of experience at lots and lots of different arenas as it were, some of them completely creative, some of them quite technical. The interesting thing is, is that I found that the technical arenas actually are also very creative or can be very creative.

Life on the road can get a little one-dimensional. I didn't want to reach 40 and have to say all I'd done was look out the window of a tour bus and get drunk.

There are a lot of stuff on the record that I am thinking is generic but actually it is just as good as everybody else who is putting stuff out at the time.

I don't have interns. I don't have a manager. I don't have assistants. I don't have a secretary. I can't figure out Outlook Express. I'm the worst person in the world answering e-mails, and my phone is probably the oldest, most battered phone you can find. So I just talk to people.

Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things.

Iron Maiden is an institution, and I'm delighted that I'm involved in it, but there was a time that I wasn't delighted so I quit.

A few of these interviews have gone slightly awry, because every now and again there has been the odd conflict of interest between interviews because of the Iron Maiden record, and I am a bit long-winded.

The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.'

Life is too short to do the things you don't love doing.

I think the best way to find out about something is to try to do it to the max. A lot of people take up a hobby or sport and then find an excuse not to carry on with it. Once I start something, I won't stop until I'm as good at it as I'll ever be.

The mystical poetry of William Blake's artwork also forms the basis for the album cover.

Well, yeah, sometimes I get a little too creative.

Well, it's a nice quiet time for Iron Maiden, and I'll be releasing a new solo album next year, so this is a really good time for the managing out my solo career, which is quite well.

I shall refract myself, yes, I shall no longer be known as the prism.

Don't ask me to put up a shelf, but I love engineering.

I do like Marylin Manson, actually. I think, he's very talented and he did make some great music.

A guy called Arthur Brown... was a big influence of mine... and also Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.

I'm very good at daydreaming. Ask any of my schoolteachers.

I find that fencing and training give me more stamina and help me deal with the craziness of being on the road so much.