Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Eddie the Eagle - Page 2

For me, I was never someone who wanted to hold on to the celebrity image.

The births of my two girls were wonderful - I felt proud to have helped bring new life into this world.

It was while I was in the mental hospital that I got my letter from the British Olympic Association saying, 'Congratulations. You've been picked to go to the Olympic Games.' I kept stressing I wasn't a patient.

Sport on TV is so boring.

My mother looked after me full-time when I was young, but as soon as I started school, she got a job in an office.

You've got to think life can give you some bad knocks; no matter how hard you're knocked, you've got to get up.

I've got two daughters of my own, and I loved watching my children grow up.

My dad supported me by working extra hours and giving me a little bit of extra money. He bought my camper van for me so I could go into Europe and drive from competition to competition.

I won't win a World Cup, and I won't win the Olympics, but I'm sure I can compete with the best, and that's what I want to show.

I always do the very best I can, and I should be given the opportunity and the right to represent my country.

There are so many world-class athletes who are great at their sport, but they're so boring. They don't talk, and they can't be interviewed very well.

I've hated poetry ever since I was at school. I include Shakespeare in that. I don't understand the obsession with him!

Both parents were hard-working and made me work for my pocket money by doing household chores. That taught me the value of money and gave me a strong work ethic.

I always know that people will only remember me for my efforts in Calgary which, I must admit, seem without doubt to have kept the name alive. But I honestly love law and really hope it can take off for me. I'm going for it.

The press portrayed me as a joke and a clown.

I wore No. 24 at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada - one bib on the back and one on the front - and those are like my medals.

My brother is 18 months older than me, and my sister is three years younger. I'm the middle one. I was born in Cheltenham, and that's where I grew up.

I was like the George Clooney of the ski business.

I was a latchkey kid. Every afternoon, I would walk home from school, let myself in, make myself a banana buttie, and watch telly until Mum came home.

If there were some people who considered me a joke, I'm sorry about that. But I did not do it for any other reason except that I loved to ski jump, and I had hopes that by my doing it, other people in my country would take up the sport.

A lot of people think I'm really outgoing and confident, but I'm not. I'd much rather sit in a corner and read my book and my paper. I'm quite happy with my own company.

I don't regard myself as an entertainer. I don't think that's where my talents lie. It always feels a bit uncomfortable.

That James Bond movie? The one where Bond skis off a cliff, shucks his skis, and parachutes to the ground? That's for me. That's what I want to be. A stuntman in a Bond movie.

People seemed to appreciate how much I wanted to pursue something I loved. They seemed to understand how much ski jumping meant to me.

In 1988, I earned something like £700,000. Yeah! I was earning 10 grand an hour opening shopping centres. Yeah! The most I earned in one day was 65 grand. I opened the Alton Towers fun ride in the morning, did a commercial in the afternoon and an appearance at a nightclub in the evening. Sixty-five grand in one day!

I think because I'm so naturally happy and unaffected and open, people thought I didn't take the jumping seriously. You're up that high, believe me - you take it very seriously.

I'm not frightened of death.

It's not been a bad life, and I do know that I could never have been a world champion. All I ever wanted to do was be the best I could with what I had, which wasn't very much, really. And that's what I think I did.

My mum was wonderful.

I like nothing more than walking down a country lane or along a mountain path - it's not proof that there is anything bigger than ourselves, but I feel very much at peace.

I was the best ski jumper in the United Kingdom.

I try to keep fit, as it's better for both skiing and plastering. I cycle and jog and I dance a lot - Ceroc, a form of modern jive.

The FIS, BSF, and British Olympic Association have been trying to stop me competing internationally. They don't like the fact that I laugh and have fun and entertain the crowd.

My dentist said my teeth were wearing away at the back because I couldn't bite. My top jaw was broken and brought forward, and my bottom jaw was broken and put back.

For all my 'Eddie the Eagle' goofing around before the camera while in training for the Calgary Olympics in 1988, I was never less than 100 per cent serious on every single jump.

When I was a kid, people kept saying, 'You can't do this, you can't do that,' and I wanted to prove them wrong.

When I trained with the Japanese team, there we'd be singing Oasis songs at the top of our voices at the top of the jumps. People thought we were daft.

When I plummeted into infamy in the Calgary Olympics, I never thought that a film would be made about my life.

I've never really let any kind of negative things affect me, generally. I would take a positive out of the most desperately horrible situation.

Once I was making £10,000 for an hour's work, but there have been years where my promotional stuff has brought in only a few hundred.