“I race in two or three classic races a year and I may carry on for 10 more years or I may stop tomorrow.”

They were ridiculous times. After I won my World Championship in 1976, I went to Japan.

I thought: This is not racing, it’s a suicide mission.

Endless motorbike talk can and does bore me.

I vowed I would do everything I could to stop the Isle of Man counting towards the World Championship. And it was stopped, so they love me in the Isle of Man.

The advantage of the rain is that, if you have a quick bike, there’s no advantage.

Nobody within motorcycling has or deserves any respect.

Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out and meet the bloody thing.

I always check my harness before I do a stunt; I test-drive the cars I have to race or explode.

During a race where everyone holds their own truth, the finish line is a surprise.

Technology is a liberation. I think the information age probably is the best thing to happen to the human race in human evolution.

Racing over the hills in the country the wind blew vast rings of shadow that dwindled again to green.

Success isn’t winning every time. A lot of different factors go into every race, and you can’t control all of them.

Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world.

The human race may be divided into people who love cats and people who hate them; the neutrals being few in numbers, and, for intellectual and moral reasons, not worth considering.

It is not depravity that afflicts the human race so much as a general lack of intelligence.