I think the secret is to understand that you still want to be part of the game. To do so, you have to forget all the victories you've managed to get in the previous years and have a great humility. You also need to realise that, if you want to go on, you have to work hard. If you dwell too much on your past successes and say "well, I have won nine world titles and more than 100 races", you'd rather stay home.

Maybe if Graziano make another work or another sport I wouldn't have had this passion to be a rider.

I try to have a different relationship with the bike. I don't give it a name, but I always speak with it. I don't know if the other riders do the same. This is not only a piece of metal - there is a soul. The bike talks back too. But not with a voice, with the components

I was lucky. My father raced bikes. He gave me the passion very early. I had my first bike when I was three or four years old.

I'm Valentino Rossi. And I want to be a person, not an icon.

The speed is something dangerous but very exciting.

We kept on racing, doing something that Luis [Salom] loved. Fortunately or unfortunately, life goes on.