You can't have Alan Partridge as Eddie the Eagle!

I've had an operation on my jaw - I don't have the big jaw anymore - and I've also had an operation on my eyes.

The failures are the people who never get off their bums.

When I started competing, I was so broke that I had to tie my helmet with a piece of string. On one jump, the string snapped, and my helmet carried on farther than I did. I may have been the first ski jumper ever beaten by his gear.

Life is good, and I'm happy, and I don't know that it would be as good if I'd been the winner in Calgary.

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.

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.

I want my life to move on. On the other hand, I can't say no to offers, not when I'm getting £50,000 a year to be Eddie the Eagle.

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

The worst thing that happened to me as a child was seeing my brother get pushed into a cement mixer.

I'm a positive person who likes to have fun and get the best out of every day.

It's nice and restful, plastering.

I did a tandem parachute jump when I opened a golf course in Atlanta, Georgia. I jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet to land on the first tee, and then I played a couple of holes with golfer Arnold Palmer. That was brilliant.

It takes a lot of guts to jump. If people criticise, I would give them a set of skis and say, 'Do it yourself then.'

On the street, I'll hear, 'You made the Olympics for me,' or 'I love what you represented.' Only occasionally is it, 'You were a flop, an also-ran, a loser.'

I have never, ever considered myself a failure.

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.

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

Most people should be given a chance to compete in the Olympic Games.

No matter how many people say you can't do something, use that as inspiration to prove them wrong.

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

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.

People still think I'm a bit of a buffoon - not really an athlete.

Some people thought I wasn't taking the sport seriously because I was always laughing and having fun, but I loved my skiing, I loved my jumping, and I thought, 'Well, why not have a smile on my face when I'm doing something that I really, really love doing,' and that's how I was.