I have a fear of poverty in old age. I have this vision of myself living in a skip and eating cat food. It's because I'm freelance, and I've never had a proper job. I don't have a pension, and my savings are dwindling. I always thought someone would just come along and look after me.

Old age treats freelance writers pretty gently.

One of the most difficult aspect of old age is,how to divorce ourselves from the unhealthy foods we were used to during our youth.

Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.

I watched him now, his hands working gingerly, as if he were learning to use them for the first time. He could not press down hard with a knife. His fingers shook. Each bite was a struggle; he chewed the food finely before swallowing.. The skin from his wrist to his knuckles was dotted with age spots, and it was loose, like skin hanging from a chicken soup bone.

Old age is just a record of one's whole life.