Meryl Streep. For all her truthful and perfected offerings that have taken me to an “elsewhere”, in which my mind could feel both soothed and stimulated.

Freddie Flintoff. He played cricket in the best spirit and in his series Field of Dreams, you could see the boys hanging on his every word. He’s a special guy.

Dr. Pedro Cavadas, a pioneer in face transplants and a specialist in the transplant of severed members. This surgeon from Valencia devotes his summer breaks to travel to Africa and tend to children who have been castrated in tribal conflicts.

I admire the mother of my children a great deal, because she’s interesting, smart and funny.

At the right time, and like my father—utterly without fear or pain, at home, with all whom I love. It was his last lesson as a parent to me.

The loss of anything, be it a loved one or a faculty—my sight, hearing, or mind.

My distractibility, diminishing memory, and capacity for sustained concentration. My English master once said I had the brain of a butterfly. I feel that 40 years later, I’ve evolved into Dory from Finding Nemo.

In my bed, a hot-water bottle on my tummy, the windows are open, reading a book that I’m already into, chocolate at hand, all with the knowledge that everyone I love and know is happy.

Both of the days my children were born. It was like I’d stepped through a mirror and everything turned Technicolor.