JB
I couldn’t do it. I realised recently that all the things that have gone wrong are just as important as all the things that went right.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 January 2016 source ↗
The question
If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 203 →I would tell myself to stop being such a worrier.
I would have been better with money.
Minnie Driver
British and American actress
I’d edit out all the awful men I managed to find who confirmed my worst suspicions about my body and my character.
I wouldn’t change anything. When I was 29, my first husband died, so I learned a new way of thinking about life, which is: there are many things that you can’t control.
More from James Bay
View profile →When I started getting to grips with playing the guitar, aged 11.
Everything in my head.
Less pizza – living on tour is not conducive to eating healthily.
My girlfriend. I am away a lot and, as much as she understands, I’d like to say sorry for not being there.
My left foot. (I’m great with my right – I can bend it like Beckham.)
My dad, for providing for the family for 20 years – he was a wine merchant and recently retired.
More on failure & regret
- What disappointment has stayed with you longest? 367 answers
- Who deserves an apology from you, and for what? 209 answers
- What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- When were you most embarrassed? 122 answers
- How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 35 answers
Also answered this
Bryn Terfel, George Michael, Shaun Ryder, Sheena Easton, Kevin Rowland, Kim Gordon
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject