Bruce Dickinson

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!

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

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.

The more guitars we have onstage the better, as I'm concerned.

Best two rock voices I've heard in a last few years both have been from grunge bands: it's Eddie Vedder and the other one is Chris Cornell from Soundgarden.

Business is just about enabling human beings, nothing more, nothing less. Businesses need to recognize this fundamental fact.

When I write with Maiden, then I write only with the guys in Maiden, we don't do songs from outside people.

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.

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

When you cut human beings down to size, we're really quite simple creatures; food, shelter, warmth, light, heat and you build it up from there really until you finally go Gucci shoes or whatever it is or whatever your consumer desires are. All those desires are ultimately, they're about gratification.

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 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.

Engineering stimulates the mind. Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things. When the schools can offer that, you'll have an engineer for life.

Teachers need to be more inspirational. But it's also up to engineering to make itself more interesting.

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

I enjoy making solo albums because over the years it's evolved into more of a genuine personal expression of story-telling and day dreams, and I work in a way that has more control.

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

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.

If heavy metal bands ruled the world wed be a lot better off.

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

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

My dad always told me, 'I don't care what you do. Just aim to be the best at it. Even if it's the world's best window cleaner.'

Bullying happens because weak people need to prop up their ego by beating up or humiliating others.

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.

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.

The celebrity thing, I mean, Lindsay Lohan - what's she for? I look at that and throw my hands up in despair.

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.

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

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

I am taking a break, but not a huge break because the Maiden record is actually happening right now, and I am recording it as we speak, well not right as we speak, but close.

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

One of my earliest ventures was when I was nine years old. I realized there was a shortage of pencils at school, so I started Rent-a-Pencil. But I made a fundamental mistake. Everybody stole my pencils.

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

Major labels blow all their money massively and blame it on the band.

My son is in a band, and he's a singer, and his vocals... they're screaming-growling stuff... and he's got a pretty reasonable voice. Yet he practices really hard to get the screaming-growling thing without losing that voice every five minutes. So I'm, like, 'Hats off to you.'

Engineering stimulates the mind.

If you really want to annoy me, ask me when I'm going to retire from rock n' roll.

With the Internet, bands can come and go every five minutes and the music looks disposable.

Everything you need to know about Iron Maiden is onstage.

Rock music should be gross: that's the fun of it. It gets up and drops its trousers.

If heavy metal bands ruled the world, we'd be a lot better off.

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.