I was born in Grimsby and always lived around there, but it's died a death because of the loss of the fishing industry.

I'm not a materialistic person at all, but I always want the next thing; I've got a nice toolbox, but I still want another set of spanners.

What I really took in in India was that people - even in the slums - were happy with what they'd got. That's something we're not good at in the Western world.

The only thing I keep from the races I've won are the handle bar grips from the bike, the rubber bits.

Road racing has given me a good life, and I'm not being cocky, but I've brought something to racing, too.

Dentists, doctors, surveyors from Latvia wanted to come to England, do anything to get away from the Soviet regime.

Going back because it's what I did and I was sort of all right at it is not a good reason to race the TT.

I want to win, whatever it takes.

Racing's been good to me, but I'm bored of it.

I feel that I'm in good company behind the wheel of the Williams FW08C. It was the first F1 car to be driven by the great Ayrton Senna, and it won the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix.

I'm a bit embarrassed about how little I know about the First World War. I didn't even know that tanks were used in it.

If you were to be put off by every little problem life throws at you, you'd get nowt done.

Speed and danger don't always go together, but it's proper fun when they do.

Speed on its own isn't always so exciting. On a racing motorbike, I can do over 180 mph, which is fast, but not as fast as the airliners that we all climb aboard to fly off on holiday. Modern passenger jets can cruise at between 500 and 600 mph, but sitting in an aeroplane like that for hours on end isn't very exciting, is it?

TV people are great folks, but if I said, 'Come and film a beetroot-jar-opening competition,' they would.

For my first race, when I was 19, I'd bought a 600cc bike. And that was far too big for me, really. I shouldn't have really had something like that. But anyway, I went and raced, and I crashed. In my very first race! But I never gave in. I kept going back and back and back.

People deal with the concentration needed to do well in a two-hour race in different ways.

I fit a lot into my days.

There's no more expensive sport than racing bloody motorbikes.

I can sleep on a bloody washing line if I want to.

The most common way to crash coming out of a corner is to highside - which is where you accelerate out of the corner, and the rear loses grip, then suddenly finds grip and chucks you off the bike.

I've always had a proper job. I don't know anything else.

The TT taxes your mind.

TV's not really a job, is it?