"...at that moment of realising death may be imminent, what happens, what goes through one's head?"

"Well there's no time to think. You don't think at all. You just experience it. What you do, in my case, is that you fight and fight to stay alive. You try and insist upon breathing. You insist on not losing the ability to breathe. And I just managed it by the skin of my teeth."

Harold Pinter, interviewed by Michael Billington in yesterday's edition of The Guardian. (Do read it, if only for the priceless bit about his Nobel-notification telephone call.)

I think Harold understands how I feel about the Arabic test I have to write tomorrow.

Beware the Ides of March, people!