One Christmas, Salvador Dali took a walk around the streets of New York carrying a bell with him. Every time he thought people weren’t paying enough attention to him he would ring the bell. “The thought of not being recognised was unbearable.” He was delighted to follow the news on the state of his health during the last days of his life, and he wanted to hear people talking about him. He also wanted to find out if his health would recover or if he was going to die. He wanted to be a female cook at the age of six. At seven he wanted to be Napoleon. “Ever since, my ambition has been continually on the increase, as has my megalomania: now all I want to be is Salvador Dali. But the closer I get to my goal, the further Salvador Dali drifts away from me.”