“If I test the car for a year I can be quite competitive the next season.”

But I could also start F1 or rallying. I love rallying much more.

I don’t like being famous – it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.

I race to win. If I am on the bike or in a car it will always be the same.

I would have probably stolen cars – it would have given me the same adrenaline rush as racing.

Maybe the bike is more dangerous, but the passion for the car for me is second to the bike.

I’m really happy, and beating Marc [Marquez] at the very last chicane gives me an extra boost.

The most important thing is to have a good relationship with the bike you have to understand what she wants. I think of a motorcycle as a woman, and I know that sounds silly, but it’s true.

How do Ferrari know what I’m doing next year when I don’t know what I’m doing next week?

I feel 100% a Yamaha rider in my heart. I had a long career and raced with several factory bikes, but the highlight of my career is undoubtedly with Yamaha.

I am able to ride the bike and think clearly about strategy and tyres. I also have positive thinking. I am very constructively critical.

I have so much respect for my opponents; many of them watched the races as little children and were supporting me!

In my opinion we are at the limit now, and 17 races is really too much. With all the testing that we do now, it means we’re always on the bike and it’s quite difficult.

You look at Moto3, the races are very exciting. Moto2 is fantastic, and then MotoGP is boring.

The great fights with your strongest rivals are always the biggest motivation. When you win easily it’s not the same taste.

Maybe if Graziano make another work or another sport I wouldn’t have had this passion to be a rider.

To win the Championship in the first year will be hard. We need time to become competitive and win races.

Acting is not a competition; everything must be done for the good of the film or else everybody loses.

I love to get behind the wheel and get competitive.

I don’t feel I have to top myself at all.

Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century.

When I was a teenager, my dad used to put a lot of pressure on me to be successful, and I’d really beat myself up about things like losing martial arts competitions.

A conversation isn’t a competition.

When deciding between two competing theories, always go with the one that doesn’t involve a magic spell.

There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.