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

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

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

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.

National pride has no need of the delirium of race.

Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of the entire human race. I do not stand here as advocate for any partisan cause, for the issues are fundamental and reach quite beyond the realm of partisan consideration.

My favorite subject was recess. Fortunately for me, I had a mother who believed I was smart.

We’re all mad, the whole damned race. We’re wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we’re all mad and in solitary confinement.

Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.

The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.

Toyin Falola has given us what is truly rare in modern African writing: a seriously funny, racy, irreverent package of memories, and full of the most wonderful pieces of poetry and ordinary information.

If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.