Monica Dolan: What do you believe happens when we die?

The question

What do you believe happens when we die?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring late-stage question in The Guardian Q&A, with materially different answers on publisher-hosted pages.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Monica Dolan

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Our friends are sad and miss us for a bit but, hopefully, they find other people at the party.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 January 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Nuala McGovern

I think we become stars.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 November 2025 source ↗

Tom Burke

You reach a certain point in life and suddenly know a lot of dead people, and I’ve noticed you don’t stop getting to know people who are dead. Those relationships continue and I like that.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 May 2026 source ↗

Miriam Margolyes

Nothing at all.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 July 2025 source ↗

Jenny Diski Novelist and essayist

I’d never been envious of those who believe in an afterlife until now. It would be so much cosier than dissolution. She’s gone to the next room. Nope, can’t manage it. She’s gone to dust and rubble. Gone nowhere. No where to go to. No she to go to it. Much easier to be convinced you will be met in Elysian fields by a thousand virgins, or drink from fountains of Manhattans. I can’t even get close to what they call faith, though I quite see Pascal had a point.

Recorded London Review of Books, 19 November 2015 source ↗