It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases – one was Alzheimer's and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer's. There were times when I thought I'd have been much happier not knowing, just accepting that I'd lost brain cells and one day they'd probably grow back or whatever. It is better to know, though, and better for it to be known, because it has got people talking, which I rather think was what I had in mind.

That this was true, I owe to Montaigne. I can’t remember when I read, or was told, that he considered it a good thing to spend a short time every day thinking about death, thus getting used to its inevitability and coming to understand that something inevitable is natural and can’t be too bad, but it was in my early teens, and it struck me as a sensible idea. Of course I didn’t set out to think about death in a regular way every day, but I did think about it quite often, and sure enough, it worked.

Life is not worth living if there is no one you would die for.

It’s all a gift. So be grateful for every day.

Someone once said online that they hated me so much they wanted to stab me with a spoon. A knife’s easy, but a spoon – that takes real hatred.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It doesn’t seem anyone has a bad word to say about him. They should let him be president – of the world. We had a brief Twitter chat, and I printed the tweets out and put them on my office wall.

An improvement in the weather in this country.

When I finished the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I bought a replica of the car. It’s in my front garden, surrounded by a lovely wildflower meadow, and people stop to look at it.

Wasting my life.

That I go to the gym a couple of times a week, yet I am unfit and overweight.