Top 50 Guy Martin Quotes

I like being in control of my own destiny, really.

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.

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.

Pike’s Peak was the single best thing I’ve ever done in motorbiking.

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

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.

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.

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’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 don’t go out. I work, go racing, then go to my shed and make things.

I should be paid to be a spokesman for Ford Transit.

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

In my normal life, I am a private person doing a proper job.

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.

It’s bred in me that I only see real work as getting stuck in and getting your hands dirty.

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.

When you dead, you dead.

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’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.

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

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

The idea for the ‘Speed’ series was to break the record for the fastest push bike.

I’m not an ungrateful person.

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

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

I don’t want to be famous.

Not everybody would choose to be a firefighter or an ambulance driver. Not everyone wants to see the nasty bits of life.

I enjoy working on anything mechanical.

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

I’ll always give it my all, and to be with a quality manufacturer like BMW is mega.

I know what a pound is, and I earn my £12 an hour, and that’s great.

People who race bikes don’t talk about crashes. They keep going.

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.

The TT taxes your mind.

A few people have said my granddad looks like me, but I reckon he’s far better looking.

I like films, but I can’t sit still for very long.

As far as I am concerned, the Ulster Grand Prix is my favourite race.

I’m fascinated by the whole communist thing. No one has a lot, but everyone is the same. I like that way of living.

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.

I’m the luckiest man alive.

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 love Scarborough. I think I have more wins there than anyone else.

I can’t stop biting off more than I can chew.

TV’s not really a job, is it?

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.

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

I’m big into the Stone Roses.

If you get beaten, and you know that you tried your hardest and kept your focus, then that’s all you can do.

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.