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When I was 15 and starting my first job as a messenger boy at the post office, delivering telegrams.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 August 2017 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
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Others on this question
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Alan Johnson
British politician
When my son was born in 2000.
Matt Smith
English actor
I believe happiness is in the moment, so now.
Kim Gordon
American musician and artist
In kindergarten, riding my bike and making objects out of clay.
Archie Panjabi
British actress
When I got a doctorate from my alma mater, Brunel. My mother always wanted me to become a doctor.
More from Shaun Ryder
View profile →I had a gun shoved in my eyeball in New York by a crack dealer in the 1980s. I have also watched somebody next to me get shot in the head in a gun battle – that was in Jamaica in the early 1990s.
The 12 years I spent in receivership. That was me being a dick. I lost the court case when I wanted to sack my management and had to pay them £120,000. I said, “I am not paying you, because I should have won.”
One Nation Under a Groove, by Funkadelic.
In 1975, I watched the film Stardust, and Adam Faith said, “I supply the birds, the pills and the pot.” And I thought, “I want that.”
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