RA
I would care less about what people think.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 April 2021 source ↗
The question
If you could edit 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 211 →
Emma Barnett
British broadcaster and journalist
Not being able to have a baby for two and a half years. Lots of people say it made me a better person; I think it made me worse. You go to a very dark place with your friends because they are having kids, and you want to be happy for them but you’re not.
Julian Lloyd Webber
British cellist and conductor
Nothing: the good times, the bad times, they make your character.
Douglas Stuart
Scottish fashion designer and novelist
My mother and my brother would still be alive. So much of my life has been coping with the grief of losing them.
Nicholson Baker
Contemporary American novelist and writer
I made too much money in my 30s, and it distorted my writing and made me less hungry. Then, in my 40s, I spent all the money on daily life – and now I don’t have it.
More from Riz Ahmed
View profile →I wanted to perform in some way, but I didn’t think it was viable. Teachers told me I should be a barrister, because I was always arguing with them.
Some of my teachers. I was a bit of a handful as a kid. They were just trying to do their job and I made it very difficult.
If I am remembered at all that would be nice. I won’t be picky.
Less admin, emails, phone calls; more space to think, read and sleep.
The thought that I could be doing more: being more productive, doing more of the things that matter, and less of the things that don’t.
Openness, curiosity and compassion.
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