To keep going and never give up, and to enjoy it to the absolute full because, at any moment, the curtain can fall.

To know thyself, as Shakespeare said.

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.

To do the very best you can and then let it go.

Professionally, becoming a relative success in a job that I love; and personally, helping to raise two wonderful children.

A couple of years ago we moved to East Sussex – I had been living in London for 35 years – and couldn’t work out why I kept waking up and thinking, what’s that sound? It was actually silence.

Working in a very busy bar in the West End when I was trying to pay my way through drama school. I had to dance in a cage in a vest and cycling shorts to Venus by Bananarama, Greased Lightnin’ and Y.M.C.A. every night. It was excruciating.

Arrogance, bullying, meanness – just try to be kind, it’s not difficult.

After the birth of both my children, although Manchester United winning the treble in 1999 came pretty close.

Outliving my kids – and rats.