“To be a great motorbike racer, the most important thing is passion for the bike.”

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!

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

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.

My approach to the races hasn’t changed in my 20-year career. If I have the chance to attack and to pass, I do it, trying to get the best possible result.

I have won on Honda and Yamaha so maybe it is interesting to win with a third team, Ducati, who are Italian.

I’m lucky because I don’t feel too much pressure – it’s only in the last hour before the race, and even then it’s good, positive pressure.

There is no greater miracle than our conscious efforts to become good human beings.

As I discovered, there is a great deal of similarity between a boom-bust process in the financial markets and the rise and fall of the Soviet system.

People residing within the cult of average don’t like to see others rise. It threatens their security, and spotlights their low self-worth. Go for great, no matter what they say.

American supremacy is the greatest threat to the world today.

It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies — whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart.

Great marketing is all about telling your story in such a way that it compels people to buy what you are selling.

In symbols one observes an advantage in discovery which is greatest when they express the exact nature of a thing briefly and, as it were, picture it; then indeed the labor of thought is wonderfully diminished.

I have seen many great places in my life, But I choose the one that has you in it.