Frank Cottrell-Boyce: What lesson has mattered most in your life?

The question

What lesson has mattered most in your life?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce

British screenwriter, novelist and actor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

That it’s impossible to persuade other people of the value of the lessons that life has taught you.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 July 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Richard Feynman Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965

It is necessary, I believe, to accept this idea, not only for science, but also for other things; it is of great value to acknowledge ignorance. It is a fact that when we make decisions in our life we don't necessarily know that we are making them correctly; we only think that we are doing the best we can – and that is what we should do.

Recorded Caltech YMCA Lunch Forum, Engineering and Science / Caltech Magazine, 2 May 1956 source ↗

George H. W. Bush 41st President of the United States, 1989–1993

It's family, and it's faith, and it's friends. I would tell them that. Don't forget that. In your brilliance, don't turn your back on your friends. Don't think you're entitled to something because you're smarter than the next guy.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Williamsburg, Virginia, 2 June 1995 source ↗

Marcus Mumford

Know the things you are responsible for and the things you aren’t.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 February 2026 source ↗

Rita Wilson American actress, singer, and producer

That you’re stronger than you think you are.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 April 2023 source ↗