I was at a dinner party many years ago, sitting along from Tom Stoppard, who in those days smoked not just between courses, but between mouthfuls. An American woman opposite watched in disbelief. ‘And you so intelligent!’ ‘Excuse me?’ said Tom. ‘Knowing that those things are going to kill you,’ she said, ‘still you do it.’ ‘How differently I might behave,’ Tom said, ‘if immortality were an option.’
