Never save anything for best.

Before I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer a year and a half ago, I rather jauntily told the readers of my memoirs that when faced with extinction I wanted to be fully conscious and awake, in order to “do” death in the active and not the passive sense. And I do, still, try to nurture that little flame of curiosity and defiance: willing to play out the string to the end and wishing to be spared nothing that properly belongs to a life span. However, one thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there’s one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

Don’t make jokes at the expense of Little Mix. They have an ardent fanbase.

Living life to the full, not having regrets and not trying to plan your future too much. Just enjoy every minute.

Every time I go on a plane I feel awful about it. So for me, and everyone in the world, being able to board an electric plane would be really cool.

Working as a waitress in a cocktail bar in Shoreditch, London.

When I was 17, my friends and I threw a fashion show for a breast cancer charity. Breast cancer is something my mum went through when I was 14, so prevention is very close to my heart. Our singer, who was performing during the fashion show, dropped out at the last minute so I had to step in. It’s on video, and my sister always brings it up.

Silly, loving and, as an Aries, passionate.

The last time I really sobbed was watching Daniel Radcliffe’s documentary about his stuntman on the Harry Potter movies [David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived].

So many things. Every headline in the newspaper, global warming … the list goes on.