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.
Be true to yourself.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2026 source ↗
To know thyself, as Shakespeare said.
I think the only life experience that I have to offer out of this is something we all know in the abstract but don't experience in practice very much. That is that you can survive an awful lot of bad stuff, so long as your mind is intact. I'm afraid that's the only life experience I have to offer.
Whenever things seem absolutely terrible, to see that you’re alive and that’s all that matters.
You are good enough.
Alanis Morissette because, in my earlier career, she was a big influence on me and had a feistiness that you didn’t see much of in women in the industry. Also, she has been very vocal about mental health issues.
My younger self for being hard on myself.
I’ve enjoyed every single job, including working at my dad’s chicken shop selling potato gems (fried potato circles) to the surfer dudes.
Forgetting the words to my own songs on stage. I’m a very good mumbler of my own songs. You’d be surprised how few people notice – if you smile and do it confidently, they’re none the wiser.
Finally nailing being on time.
A hairdresser through the week and a star on the weekends.
Jack Davenport, Lee Child, Bobbi Brown, Kerry Godliman, John Simm, Frank Cottrell-Boyce
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