The author and poet, 60, on why the best kung fu move is to run, how he’s going to try online dating and why it’s best not to touch his chocolate

There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t live to see 30, but now I’ve doubled that. It feels strange to turn 60. I don’t feel old at all. I play football with 25-year-olds and I can outrun all of them.

I went down a bad road a couple of times, but when you make mistakes it’s not about regretting them, it’s about saying, ‘How can I learn from that?’ The worst mistakes are the ones you just keep making, it doesn’t matter how big or how small.

There have been low points in my life and the thing that has taken me through it all has been my love of martial arts and meditation. I went to China to study with the monks at the Shaolin temple and I learned that the physical side is only a part of it. When I speak to kids I tell them the best kung fu move is to run, don’t fight.

The first time someone called me a vegan I went to hit them. I thought they were insulting me. It was a love of animals that made me go vegetarian at the age of 11 and then, when I was about 13, I just thought: ‘I’m not taking another animal’s milk,’ so I gave up dairy.

I only got drunk once and I hated it. I gave up smoking weed in my 30s. My weakness is cake. If you come to my house I’ll say: ‘Help yourself to fruit’ and then I’ll show you the cupboard with my chocolate in and I’ll say: ‘Don’t fuck with that.’

I like my own company, but I don’t want to grow old alone. I guess I’ll have to get on the internet. But if I write, ‘60-year-old, long hair, vegan, lives in the country, likes gardening, walks, poetry,’ you’re going to think you’re getting a hippy.

I had a life of crime and there’s a part of me that doesn’t regret it. I used to think I was fighting the system, but now I realise I was just robbing people who were working hard like my parents. I’ve been robbed recently and I just think, ‘What goes around comes around.’

The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah is published by Scribner at £20. Order it for £17 at guardianbookshop.com