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

It's not name dropping, but not many people can say, like me, that they spent the day with the likes of Francis Bacon or that boring drunk Dylan Thomas. You don't forget things like that.

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

A lot of girls annoy me who go to university - one girl told me she was going to Oxford because it was something to do between leaving school and getting married. And I've got to pay for that being an income tax payer.

But maybe that's what the dead do. They stay. They linger. Benign and sweet and painful. They don't need us. They echo all by themselves.

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