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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Happiness is planting the vegetables, sleeping with my girlfriend, running, doing my work, sitting by the fire with a book and a glass of wine... I need a reason to be unhappy, but do not need one to be quietly cheerful.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 December 2009 source ↗
Getting married at Islington register office in 1994.
I am trying to find a little happiness at least once a day, so this morning.
Is all happiness in the past? Well, the births of three children. And playing with children and grandchildren.
Last year, during four days in January, when I directed Rhoda, my second short film, in a tiny house in Camberwell with Juliet Stevenson and Emma D’Arcy.
Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.
Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect. […] Take no notice of anyone with a gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.
Richard Osman, Eli Roth, Jessica Hynes, Joyce Carol Oates, Bernadine Evaristo, Marian Keyes
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