Top 50 Charley Boorman Quotes

All kids love bikes and cars. But there was a guy in my local village, Tony, who gave me a go on a bike. My first proper motorbike was when I was about 12, but I’d ridden on his and he was the one who really got me into bikes.

I think people saw him as someone who did good things for Ireland. If you looked at all the Irish actors in ‘Excalibur’ alone – Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson – there was a whole gaggle of Irish actors who’ve gone on to become stars, so Dad was really part of that.

The experience of riding an electric bike is very different. Because there was no engine noise and no big vibration coming from the bike, it wasn’t as stressful.

Everyone needs a bit of adrenalin in their lives.

I had a wonderful childhood, looking back on it.

Get on to social media and ask questions about the areas you’re going to. You’ll be surprised at the amount of responses from people who want you to experience some of the amazing things they discovered themselves.

I’m a traveller, I love to travel.

Unlike London or other big cities, there’s a great tolerance for motorbikes in Ireland. Culturally, it’s quite different.

I had a wife, kids and a mortgage and my acting career was nowhere, so I was painting and decorating people’s homes.

I have a reading problem and it’s hard for me to read books. But I had no problem with the ‘Emerald Forest’ script.

Excalibur’ was a quest for my father. I remember it was manic on the film set. And we had these massive castle sets. I think my dad was under tremendous pressure making the movie because there was so much going on. I remember it was a hard one to make – a lot of stress and strain.

I suppose all the things I’ve done have been different.

My ideal holiday would be to spend the first week doing lots of fun stuff, then to spend the second week relaxing on a beach.

I got that sense of travel and adventure from my father.

On the whole, GPS is fine but you still need maps because the information available can be different to what’s on the ground. You need to be vigilant for obstacles.

I’m competitive but I’m not butch.

My performances in auditions were so inept that I hardly got any jobs in film or TV. I just could not learn the lines and the thought of doing theatre terrified me. What if I forgot my lines in the middle of a scene with an entire audience watching?

There’s a whole culture now where you meet travellers who don’t give you a scrap of paper with their address on it, they give their GPS coordinates. ‘I’ve seen this amazing place in Malawi you’ve got to go to! I’ll give you the coordinates!’

People warned us off lots of countries. Someone would say, for instance, ‘Stay away from Sudan. It’s full of thieves.’ And we’d say, ‘Have you been there then?’ ‘Er, no.’

I found I was being pushed to one side and I was being ear-marked as being thick, which is a very damaging thing to be told as a young kid.

Long Way Round’ was the first time Ewan and I had done anything like that. We went through Mongolia and Siberia and places like that, so it was very tough.

I have a permanent moustache so I can be a ‘Movator:’ I take random telephone numbers and ring people up and ‘movate’ them to grow moustaches.

If anybody has walked down the road and someone says turn left and you take a right that’s a form of dyslexia. If you write a number down backwards or you get the numbers mixed up a little bit occasionally, that’s a form of dyslexia.

I grew up in Wicklow, near Roundwood. It’s a beautiful place on the east coast. That’s where I started riding bikes.

You get sentimental on the road. I’d see a horse with its foal and a tear would come to my eye.

I have been working since I was three.

You hear stories about the horror crashes of the Dakar Rally, which is a long 16-day race, and about people getting lost in the desert, and they’re all true. Every 20 minutes, you were just about to crash. Bikes, cars and trucks all race at the same time.

I grew up in Ireland, in the Wicklow Mountains just behind Dublin, and got a job in a Volkswagen garage when I was 14. I did it in the summer for about five weeks. My father thought it would be a great idea because I was really into bikes.

I appeared in several of Dad’s films – at the time, I didn’t really appreciate how great a director he was.

When you’re nuts about motorbikes, sooner or later, you get to the point where you really want to do a long journey.

I remember being very free in Ireland.

If you say to people, ‘I’m off to Papa New Guinea,’ you’ll often get a bad reaction – usually from people who’ve never been there. There’s this fear of the unknown. And 99% of the time, you end up surprised – it rekindles your faith in humanity.

Sometimes you take for granted what you have on your own doorstep.

When my sister died, I had my first child.

I don’t have to win at tennis. I have a friend who is so competitive at tennis I sometimes throw a game because I know it means so much to him.

I’m very grateful to being dyslexic and I owe my career to being dyslexic.

I always think that a bit sad – that people think their wives would stop them doing what they wanted to do.

Always bring a pack of baby wipes with you.

We all live in a very tranquil, sanitised world where you’re told to do everything, and when you travel, it’s very liberating not to be in that crazy, nannied state.

I was dyslexic – still am dyslexic – and as child, I found things very difficult. I think my father realised that in acting and stuff I could express myself.

I think obviously when you’re first diagnosed with cancer you definitely panic and that your mind races and thinks the worst but I was extremely lucky.

It took four days from discovering I had cancer to finding out how serious the problem was.

He was an amazing actor and could mimic anybody’s voice. My sister Katrine was walking past one day and could hear our dad shouting and thought, ‘God, I won’t go in that room!’ but realised it was Nicol Williamson mimicking my father’s voice perfectly.

We have a Mercedes Viano, which is a sort of posh people carrier. I told my wife I bought it for the kids, but the real reason is that I can put my dirt bikes and a mattress in the back, then get out of London for the weekend.

Travelling is fantastic fun and you see far more of a country journeying through it.

GPS devices are fantastic, but when travelling, especially in the middle of Africa, you must always bring a map as well.

On the Internet you can swap GPS details and use tools like Google Maps. It’s amazing.

The Irish are great talkers and incredibly friendly, it’s just in the DNA.

The thing about Mongolia is that it’s incredibly difficult to grow vegetables there, so mostly we ate muttony stews.

No-one’s ever satisfied.