Richard Coles: What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

The question

What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

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

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Richard Coles

British musician, writer, presenter and priest

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

“I could never love you like that.”

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 June 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Katie Melua

“Your lyrics are rubbish.” It was someone I was working with when I was in my early 20s. It turned out well because I then spent a long time studying and learning how to write good lyrics.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 November 2023 source ↗

Layton Williams

Racial and homophobic slurs – the F- and N-words. When I moved to London, people screamed the F-word from their cars, and that stings.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 December 2024 source ↗

Omid Djalili British stand-up comedian and actor

"Which side shall I comb it over?"

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗

Chris Bryant

The melanoma has returned in your lung.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 September 2025 source ↗

More from Richard Coles

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Question As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself? Identity & self

A great composer. I wrote to Benjamin Britten to tell him this and that he was my third favourite composer. For some reason he didn’t feel moved to reply.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 June 2023 source ↗