Oh, to me not drinking is like being dead, almost. I sit here taking endless journeys down memory lane. It gets boring.

There's nothing undignified about lying about all day and being waited on by servants, sipping bloody champagne.

I have stood in a bar in Lambourn and been offered, in the space of five minutes, a poached salmon, a leg of a horse, a free trip to Chantilly, marriage, a large unsolicited loan, ten tips for a ten-horse race, two second-hand cars, a fight, and the copyright to a dying jockey's life story.

I was under the care of a couple of medical students who couldn't diagnose a decapitation.

Oh, the self-importance of fading stars. Never mind, they will be black holes one day.

They smoke cigarettes professionally. The smoke is inhaled very sharply and the teeth are bared.Then the head turns to give you a profile and the smoke is exhaled slowly and deliberately and the grey jet stream becomes a beautiful blue cloud of smoke.What are they trying to tell us?

I don't remember ever being full of dislike and hatred for people, like some kids I've come across now.