Quotes from James May

I've never wanted to be on television for the sake of it, I suppose because I'm not one of life's natural presenters; I'm not an actor.

I'm on television far too much. I'm not sure why. I've watched myself on TV from time to time. It's painful.

I'd quite like to film in Central Park. I think we have asked, but we're not allowed to.

I don't have a worry about women because I keep reading that not only are they better at school, they are now better at parking, better at navigating... we know that women are good at everything.

It would be a shame if the BBC didn't exist.

The shirt thing just started one day when I bought one with a really interesting pattern, and people laughed at it, so I thought, 'I'll keep buying daft shirts with flowers on.'

I'm not beholden to anyone. I'm not waiting for a pension or a carriage clock.

There's this perception that I've got this huge collection of old cars. I don't.

I love a bicycle, and I haven't been without at least one since I was three years old.

Look - think very hard about the car you want. Then buy that one, brand new.

I do worry about breaking things - things that don't belong to me.

I'm not a big film buff; I like watching films, but I tend to forget them.

They're pretty accurate, the clocks in mobile phones.

I am actually a perfectly capable modern man who can cook, clean, wash, and find my way to places, but nobody believes it.

Jeremy Clarkson wants to become a farmer - he's bought a field - Hammond wants to open a supermarket, and I'd like to spend my days owning a shoe shop.

There's a lot of politics in television and a lot of in-fighting and all that sort of stuff, but in the end, we are purveyors of entertainment. Viewers are not really bogged down in who's doing what and who hates who and who's doing best in the ratings. They watch television to be entertained.

When it comes to watches, it's ironic that you can spend thousands on an exquisitely made mechanical watch, and yet it will be less accurate than a five-quid digital bought from a petrol station.

I've never quite trusted water; I don't think it's entirely healthy.

Watching people move to nice music is very pleasant.

There's a great deal of poetry in working out how things work, cutting bits of metal, trying to mend stuff.

You have to be a bit mad and conceited to go on television.

I don't look like Susan Boyle!

I hate the idea of people nicking my stuff, but in all honesty, I'm pretty well off. If a genuinely desperate man on his last gasp nicks my coat from the pub on a freezing night, well, he's welcome to it. It'll change his life. Mine's only inconvenienced by having to buy another one.

It's fairly well known that we all hate each other to some extent. 'Top Gear' has worked because of a combination of camaraderie and mutual dislike. That's actually the magic.