It's ridiculous, but it's horrible going bald. Anyone who says it isn't is lying.

I thought I was God's gift to mankind and the greatest Irishman since George Best.

Brain surgeons are dealing with the very last thread of life, and they have to be very confident, but I think they tend to remember their failures rather than their successes, and that must be very hard. Who do you share that failure with? That's why their personal lives are often disastrous.

Ours was a very progressive Protestant family, but my parents were God-loving rather than God-fearing. We went to church, and I still go with my mum and dad when I return home - it's a family thing. I played flute in my dad's marching band, but I had an integrated upbringing. We had a lot of Catholic friends.

I feel old and vulnerable. I now realise that I knew nothing and know nothing, but back when my career was beginning, I thought I was a man when, in fact, I was a dewy-eyed boy who'd not seen an avocado or eaten a tomato.

It's ridiculous, but it's horrible going bald. Anyone who says it isn't is lying.

In my life, I have made the occasional catastrophic choice, and it's just a case of moving on and learning from it.