Woody Allen has paid a heartfelt tribute to his late friend and former lover Diane Keaton

He wrote in a tribute published on The Free Press: "Unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is unlikely to ever see again, her face and laugh illuminated any space she entered.

"I first laid eyes on her lanky beauty at an audition and thought, If Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he'd be Keaton...

"For the first week of rehearsal we never spoke a word to one another. She was shy, I was shy, and with two shy people things can get pretty dull. Finally, by chance we took a break at the same moment and wound up sharing a fast bite at some Eighth Avenue joint.

"That was our first moment of personal contact. The upshot is that she was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Could I be in love so quickly?"

The Annie Hall filmmaker admitted Diane's opinion of his work was one of the few he trusted.

He said: "As time went on I made movies for an audience of one, Diane Keaton.

"I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it. If she liked it, I counted the film as an artistic success. If she was less than enthusiastic, I tried to use her criticism to reedit and come away with something she felt better about.

"By then we were living together and I was seeing the world through her eyes. She had huge talent for comedies and drama, but she could also dance and sing with feeling. She also wrote books and did photography, made collages, decorated homes, and directed films. Finally, she was a million laughs to be around.

"For all her shyness and self-effacing personality, she was totally secure in her own aesthetic judgment. Whether she was criticizing a movie of mine or a play of Shakespeare's, she held both to the same standard. If she felt Shakespeare had gone wrong-it didn't matter who or how many sang his praises, it was her own feeling that she went with, and she didn't hesitate to put the knock on the Bard."

Woody went on to praise Diane's journey from "beautiful yokel" to "sophisticated fashion icon", as well as sharing memories of meeting her family and of not realising she was battling an eating disorder when they lived together.

The Vicky Cristina Barcelona filmmaker concluded the world is now a "drearier" place without his friend around.

He wrote: "She went on to date a number of exciting men, all of them more fascinating than I was.

"I went on to keep trying to make that great masterpiece that I am still struggling with when I last looked.

"I kidded Keaton that we'd wind up-she like Norma Desmond, me like Erich von Stroheim, once her director, now her chauffeur.

"But the world is constantly being redefined, and with Keaton's passing it is redefined once again. A few days ago the world was a place that included Diane Keaton. Now it's a world that does not. Hence, it's a drearier world.

"Still, there are her movies. And her great laugh still echoes in my head."