What happens when we die?

Originally asked

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

A recurring late-stage question in The Guardian Q&A, with materially different answers on publisher-hosted pages.

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

Recorded Niamh Cusack said elsewhere, not written here
I don’t know, but I am quite happy returning to the universe.

Rosanna Greenstreet, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 October 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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David Lynch Film director, screenwriter and painter
And yet I can’t tell you, for no one can prove what happens on the other side. It’s like anybody’s guess until it happens. You can say, I believe this would happen, but you can’t prove it.
Recorded Etan Ilfeld, The Etan Ilfeld Podcast / Watkins Magazine, Watkins MIND BODY SPIRIT Magazine, 28 January 2025 source ↗
Hugh Skinner
I think we’re definitely gone, but I do think people leave traces everywhere from what they did in life, and live on and continue to make an impact through the ripple effect of that.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗
Ben Okri
We don’t die. We change realms. Life is eternal. Living is not. Live while you are alive.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 July 2026 source ↗

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David Lynch, Hugh Grant, Nigel Havers, Kelly Hoppen, Russell Mael, Winston Churchill

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