Walking in the rainforest with my mother, back in Nicaragua. She loved it, and inspired me to devote much of my life to protecting the environment.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 March 2020 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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Christy Turlington Burns
American model
Before kids, when I was 13 or so, on the back of my horse, running at full speed in an open pasture. Post kids, happiness happens often, but in more subtle ways. I now prefer the word “content”.
Salman Rushdie
Indian-British-American novelist
I’m pretty happy right now, although the plague is a problem. I got the virus early, and was unwell for two and a half weeks. I was spared the worst symptoms; I realise more strongly every day that I’m one of the very lucky ones.
Probably as a small child in a pool in my mother’s arms.
I’m the happiest right now. I can see that I’m in a kind of sweet spot: my parents are alive, my kids are little, my wife is hot and my body doesn’t hurt.
More from Bianca Jagger
View profile →To my daughter, because she felt that I spent too much time saving other children. I would go to war zones and travel the world for human rights work, and she was missing me.
The climate catastrophe.
I sometimes wish I had had the courage to be a politician – but I made the decision to be a human rights defender instead. I realised I cannot be both at the same time, because they may be incompatible.
More sleep, less stress.
I was brought up Catholic, to believe that marriage is for life. And we failed.
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