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.
Showing up is at least 90% of it.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 April 2026 source ↗
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
A 'no' is free.
That this was true, I owe to Montaigne. I can’t remember when I read, or was told, that he considered it a good thing to spend a short time every day thinking about death, thus getting used to its inevitability and coming to understand that something inevitable is natural and can’t be too bad, but it was in my early teens, and it struck me as a sensible idea. Of course I didn’t set out to think about death in a regular way every day, but I did think about it quite often, and sure enough, it worked.
If it scares you, do it.
Inability to listen.
Martin Sheen, simply the kindest and most fun-loving person and serious activist I’ve ever known. If Jesus was alive today he’d point to Martin Sheen and say, “That’s what I was talking about.”
Hasn’t happened yet, it’s coming.
My lack of foreign language skills.
There are no more interviews.
Getting even older.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Fearne Cotton, Roger McGough, Isabel Allende, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Phoebe Dynevor
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