Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Not everybody would choose to be a firefighter or an ambulance driver. Not everyone wants to see the nasty bits of life.
When TV companies stop coming up with ideas, and I've got to go and do 'Celebrity Big Brother,' I don't want that to happen.
They don't call it the Wall of Death for nothing. The biggest risk is crashing off the top. That's when it gets really messy.
I've had my eyes opened to so many things. But still, all I really want to do is my truck job. It's like an ingrained, default setting.
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.
I'm a great believer in setting myself goals, and I like to think that, once I've a goal to aim for, I'll do whatever it takes to achieve it.
I'm not much of a chef, so people keep buying me cookery books to broaden my culinary horizons, but I've not got far past shepherd's pie yet.
I'm not into these mollycoddled sorts of things; I like a bit of danger. I haven't got a death wish, but it makes things exciting, doesn't it?
Building the machine for 'Speed' was fun, as was working on the 'Spitfire' programme. They are programmes I enjoyed being on, but they are not my job.
I like the Mid Antrim circuit, and if anyone were to ask me to show them a typical Irish road surface, I would take them to the Mid Antrim. It is awesome.
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.
Short-circuit racing is full of health and safety, but the reason I ride a motorbike is because of the danger, and there is no place more dangerous than the TT.
I don't see coming down to London and talking to people and making TV shows as real work. The only reason I do it is because they keep coming up with decent ideas.
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.
Some riders believe in all the hype at the TT; have a successful week, give up work then go and buy motorhomes and cars. I like to get back to normal afterwards and go to work.
There's a line you have when you're racing, and you can ride up to that line. If you push beyond it, you might crash. But first is first, second is forgotten. That's what we say.
My back is full of metal; so are my hands and legs. I'll have to decide who will get all that in my will. It's probably worth a fortune in scrap metal. But it doesn't affect my movement.
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 got my own TV stuff on the go, and it's all a bit oddball - it's one-offs, and I can do what, when, and how I want it, really. I don't have any scripts or people telling me to do stuff twice.
I remember, my first season was 1999, and I must have crashed about 13 times in that first year. But then, in the second season, you crash about half as much and then, in the third year, even less again.
If I'd done 'Top Gear,' I would have had to have left my job, and I've got the best job in the world. To do 'Top Gear' and do it properly would mean leaving work, and I can't. I don't want to leave work.
I was working for Martin Finnegan. He was my best mate in racing. I went to his wedding in November 2007. No-one else from the racing world was invited apart from me and my girlfriend. The funeral was the following May.
I work nights on a farm in the summer when harvest starts. I work on a civil engineering site down the Humber Docks where all the refineries are. So that's my day job from seven to four. And then I build engines at night.
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.
When I crash during a race and injure myself, what's the point in whinging? Because I put myself in that position. No one's making me race motorbikes - I want to go and race motorbikes. The most annoying thing for me is lying in hospital and not being able to get to work. I get beside myself.
When I was little, I would open up lawnmowers and try to make them go faster. I wasn't strong enough to do some things, so I'd wait for my dad to get home from work to help me. He was great, but he never really encouraged me, and I'll be the same if I have kids: I'll leave them to do their own thing.
I get home from work at six or seven. When I'm busy, I set my alarm for three, get out of bed at quarter past three. I have a cup of tea and read a magazine and take the dogs for a walk up the lane. Go through my text messages and reply to anything that needs it, then get my biking gear on ready to cycle to work.
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?