Brian May Quotes

Once you've established yourself with hits that become part of people's lives, then they pretty much always want to see you.

They say you can do honest, sincere work for decades, but you're given in general a 10-year period when what you do touches the zeitgeist - when you're relevant. And I'm aware of that, and I don't want my time to go by.

Icon. What is an icon? When someone is iconic it means they have established a certain kind of legacy possibly, and I think it does come with time. It's something in the arts, I feel. Maybe not, maybe it doesn't have to be in the arts exactly. I'm not really sure. But I don't think you are born an icon.

I hope when I'm dead I'll be considered an icon, though.

In some articles written about me, writers have said I'm a link between the old and the new, and I think, in a certain sense, that's legitimate.

If you change because of fame, that's not the right thing. But if you change because of growth, that's normal... The whole fame thing hasn't hit me. And I hope it kind of doesn't.

All things take time. A lot of my films still run on cable and are in video stores, and there's a whole generation that doesn't know who I am. So, it's a dichotomy. In some people's minds I may never grow up.

I think a lot of people want to be remembered the way they were, as opposed to the way they are now.

Once you've changed who you are or who you've portrayed in your music, the fans, they'll catch it... Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.

Elvis' songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I'm gone.

As an artist or musician, you want to be remembered for the music you make.

This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the nine hundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good.

He is irreplaceable. Even in death I have no doubt that Johnny Cash will continue to live on as an inspiration to musicians and songwriters and all of America.

When I die, I want people to be like, 'Respect the music.' I don't really care if you hate me or like me - what I want badly is the validation and respect of the people.

We don't mind if people think we've come from nowhere. Because once they've become fans, they'll delve deeper in and will be surprised to find we've been around awhile and that we've had a lot of experience doing this.

Snoop Dogg has always held me up. He's always held me above the fray, and that keeps me relevant. Wherever he goes, he takes my name with him when he does interviews. He's talking about me. He keeps me alive, and that feeds my spirit.

I don't think it's helpful to go dismantling the past, but you can refuse to honor aspects of it that you don't believe in anymore.

I go from being not known to being so known in the tennis world, in Canada in general. It's going to be a little bit of a change to me. I'm going to have to adapt. But that doesn't change things. I still have to work really hard every day.

Some people have such strong memories of me as a young actor, that it's hard to see me as anything else.

If somebody told me people would still care about our music 25 years ago, I would have thought they were crazy.

Ain't nobody bumping Nas no more, no disrespect to him. He had his time.

I would really like it if someone knows me more for a character that I've played. If they call out the character's name instead of mine by mistake, it would be lovely.

One indisputable fact is that whatever has happened to, and with, the Allman Brothers Band, we've persevered.

I would just like to be remembered.

Young man, make your name worth something.