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.
— Bruce Dickinson
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.
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.
The celebrity thing, I mean, Lindsay Lohan - what's she for? I look at that and throw my hands up in despair.
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.'
If heavy metal bands ruled the world, we'd be a lot better off.
Everything you need to know about Iron Maiden is onstage.
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.'
Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things.
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 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.
The mystical poetry of William Blake's artwork also forms the basis for the album cover.
When I write with Maiden, then I write only with the guys in Maiden, we don't do songs from outside people.
A guy called Arthur Brown... was a big influence of mine... and also Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.
Well, yeah, sometimes I get a little too creative.
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.
Teachers need to be more inspirational. But it's also up to engineering to make itself more interesting.
South Wales is a hub of aviation.
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.
I find that fencing and training give me more stamina and help me deal with the craziness of being on the road so much.
If you really want to annoy me, ask me when I'm going to retire from rock n' roll.
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.
I'm very good at daydreaming. Ask any of my schoolteachers.
I'm trying to be as green as I can. As an airline pilot, I have a carbon footprint that's a size 10, so it's pretty hard.
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.
Engineering stimulates the mind.
Rock music should be gross: that's the fun of it. It gets up and drops its trousers.
I shall refract myself, yes, I shall no longer be known as the prism.
Major labels blow all their money massively and blame it on the band.
I do like Marylin Manson, actually. I think, he's very talented and he did make some great music.
I'm not going to do any more solo touring.
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 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.
The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.'
If your only arbiter of anything is money, really you should... go and rob banks.
Business is just about enabling human beings, nothing more, nothing less. Businesses need to recognize this fundamental fact.
There are a lot of bands using self-abuse as a marketing gimmick.
Apart from death and taxes, the one thing that's certain in this life is that I'll never be a fashion icon.
I was an accident - my mum was only 16 when she had me.
My aim as a frontman is always to try and shrink the venue, if you can, to turn that football stadium into the world's smallest club. At least you have to try.
With the Internet, bands can come and go every five minutes and the music looks disposable.
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.
Don't ask me to put up a shelf, but I love engineering.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
