JN
The world doesn’t consist of bad and good people; it consists of people seeing things in a different way.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
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Lil Nas X
American rapper
That I can’t control it.
Daryl McCormack
Irish actor
To trust in the process.
Desmond Tutu
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
It is that you know that you are standing out in this crowd because you are being carried on the shoulders of others. You know, you may have the capacity to articulate their aspirations. That is maybe something special you might have. But what is a leader without followers? I mean you would have all of these interviews and people will not — would not necessarily want to follow. No, I am a great believer in the fact that everything is corporate. Everything is corporate and you — as a leader you are one who can coax the best out of others.
If it scares you, do it.
More from Jo Nesbø
View profile →Tottenham this season.
Exultation, fear, quiet comfort and even hate.
When Molde won the Norwegian premier league in 2011, the year the club was 100 years old.
As a nice guy, but I’m not sure that is going to happen.
I worked on a trawler and I was seasick the whole time.
Rock climbing in Oslo. During abseiling, I hadn’t tied a knot at the end of the rope and almost slid out. I saw the end of the rope at the last second, so I stopped abseiling.
More on time & hindsight
- What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? 577 answers
- What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What worries you about getting older? 61 answers
- What counsel has proved most valuable to you? 28 answers
- If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Maurice Sendak, Tony Judt, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Christopher Hitchens, Pauline McLynn, Jack Whitehall
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- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject