“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.”

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.

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.

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.

When you have five or six potential hall of famers on your team … that’s when you win penants and championships. The only thing you have to be concerned about is getting the ballplayers to bed on time.

My eventual goal is to win a championship. And before I retire, I just want to win a championship. That’s it.

Everybody on a championship team doesn’t get publicity, but everyone can say he’s a champion.

Growing up, I always dreamed of winning an NBA championship, never a gold. A gold was something that never crossed my mind.

I’m pissed off. ‘Cause I knew I did something wrong. I’ll have a hell of a season if I win the championship and average 20 points a game.

I failed, I think, seven [or] eight times before I finally got my first [championship]. It was just, you know, just about me growing up.

People talk about you won four national championships. Well, I feel like we’ve had good enough teams to win eight. So I feel like we failed four times. I feel like I failed four times.

When I talk about a successful program, define that. It’s not just winning the national championship every year because nobody can do that.