HW
I would never have gone on a diet. I would go back with the knowledge that not being perfect is fine.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2017 source ↗
The question
If you could revise one chapter of 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 203 →I’d give my younger self the lessons I’ve learned over the years, sparing myself the need to figure everything out so publicly.
Harry Redknapp
English football player and manager
I was probably too cheeky to chairmen over the years.
Katherine Parkinson
English actor
I wish I hadn’t been a heavy smoker for so many years.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
English snooker player
I would go back to when I was 14 and keep to my own style of playing snooker. I was perfect, but I didn’t think I was, so I started playing like everybody else and created bad habits. With a little more time, I could have been the ultimate player. I look at my career and I probably got 75% out of it instead of 100%.
More from Harriet Walter
View profile →My mother, because I didn’t appreciate until after she’d gone that she was a vulnerable human being. I just expected her to know everything and be everything.
Everything. I’ve one of those brains that doesn’t quieten down.
Judith Clark, on whom I based my character in the prison trilogy. She has served over 35 years and turned herself around. She is an inspiration.
I went to a funeral where they played Cheek To Cheek: Fred Astaire singing “Heaven. I’m in heaven… ” Everyone smiled. I’d like that.
I spent £600 on Rudolf Nureyev’s ballet shoes after he died. He was the biggest idol in my life and influenced me hugely.
In some way your life is doubled. You’re you and the other person.
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