Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words

by Freddie Mercury

In the beginning I was quite prepared to starve, which I did, and just make a go of it. You have to believe in yourself, no matter how long it takes.

You have to have a kind of arrogance and absolute determination,

I’m one of those people who believes in doing things that interest you.

In a way it was a very good inspiration; we just thought we’ve left our academic qualifications behind and now we’re going to do this.

Glamour was part of us, and we wanted to be dandy. We wanted to shock and be outrageous. We didn’t want people to have to think about whether they liked us or not, but to formulate an opinion the moment they saw us. We’re not just trying to be different, because if you’re professional, you don’t have to try to be anything!

Labels are as bad as they are good, and if you took them seriously you’d be very silly.

You’ve got to learn to push yourself, be there at the right time and learn how to deal with the business.

You also have to be a bitch to survive!

I don’t go out of my way to be controversial, not at all, but what a lot of people find outrageous, is quite normal for me!

By the way, there’s no coke bottle stuffed down there, my dears. My hose is my own... It’s all mine!

I am myself, and in fact half the time I let the wind take me.

I think love and the lack of love is always going to go on, and there are so many different ways that people fall in and out of love.

Also, I have visions of actually having a film made of my life story, one day, which I would have a key part in. I might not play the lead myself. My dears, the things I’ve done in my lifetime... it’ll be totally triple X-rated, I’ll tell you!

“If I wanted children, I’d just go to Harrods and buy one. They sell anything there. Buy two, and you get a nanny thrown in!”

Yes, I’m gay. I’ve done all that. I’m as gay as a daffodil, dears.

I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want my security but I also want my freedom.

I have a cleaning lady that comes in – who sometimes breaks the odd treasured ornament... if she’d been around in Louis XIV time, there wouldn’t be any antiques left today

Once, if somebody had said I was boring, I would have gone mad, I’d have had a flap –but now I love it. I just think “Look, discard all that and start afresh. Try to think of yourself as somebody different.” You can’t do it in patches.

I’ve finally found that niche I was looking for all my life, and no fucker in this universe is going to upset it.

“I’d love to have a baby, yes. But I’d rather have another cat.”

Friends come and go. A real true friend for me has to be very strong to put up with me.

“I’m not a star-fucker. How can I be a star-fucker?... I am a star!”

Sometimes you do feel helpless, and I think this is my way of showing that I can do my bit. And that’s as far as I want to go.

I would walk into a room and close it dead.

I’m a bitch. I actually enjoy being a bitch. I enjoy being surrounded by bitches.

My dears, I’m the vainest creature going.

And if it all ended tomorrow, I would do it all again on my own terms.

Money may be vulgar, but it’s wonderful.

Of course we’re in it for the money, and I’m not afraid to say that. We love the money. Anybody who tells you differently, is talking out of their arse – they really are.

“I don’t care what journalists say. What do they know? Fuck them if they just don’t get it!”

But for God’s sake, if I want to make big confessions about my sex life, or to make a fucking crash-landing, like a tidal wave, a big splash after all these years, would I go to The Sun, of all papers, to do it?

It would be cowardice to stop now.”

The reason we’re successful, darlings? My overall charisma of course!

Not easy to replace me, huh!?

If I had to do it all again? Yes. Why not? I might do some of it slightly differently. I have no regrets.

The most important thing, darlings, is to live a fabulous life. As long as it’s fabulous, I don’t care how long it is.

Sometimes I think there must be more to life than rushing round the world like a mad thing.

Will I get to heaven? No. I don’t want to. Hell is much better. Look at all the interesting people you’re going to meet down there!

“Thank you, God bless and sweet dreams... you load of tarts!”