The late Patrick Swayze's memoir, The Time of My Life, has been released and reveals the actor's fear of facing death while battling cancer.

"When my doctors ... said the words 'pancreatic cancer,' a single thought popped into my head: 'I'm a dead man,'" Swayze's memoir reads. "I was not ready to go, and I'd be damned if this disease was going to take me before I was good and ready."

In the book, the 'Dirty Dancing' actor wrote that he wanted to understand what he was up against so he could fight the cancer as best he could. "Fighting cancer has been the most challenging eye-opening experience I've ever had, and it has sent me on an emotional journey deeper than anything I've ever felt before," Swayze wrote.

"Facing your own mortality is the quickest way possible to find out what you're made of. It strips away all the bullshit and exposes every part of you, your strength, your weaknesses, your sense of self, your soul. It also leads you to confront life's hardest questions."

Swayze's wife of 34 years Lisa Niemi also opens up in the memoir about her husband's struggle that eventually took his life, saying, "He's my best weapon against this terrible disease."

The book, The Time of My Life, is available in bookstores today.