Lee Child: What thought won't let you sleep?

The question

What thought won't let you sleep?

Originally asked

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

A long-running fixed question in The Guardian's weekly Q&A questionnaire.

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

Lee Child

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Nothing. If I’m worried or upset or tormented, I go to sleep quickly and easily, to find welcome oblivion.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 196 →

John Simm English musician and actor

A couple of years ago we moved to East Sussex – I had been living in London for 35 years – and couldn’t work out why I kept waking up and thinking, what’s that sound? It was actually silence.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2023 source ↗

Busta Rhymes American rapper

Creating. When everyone goes to bed and then you have six or seven hours to create peacefully. I’ve become nocturnal. Even on a night when I am not in the studio, I still won’t go to sleep till six in the morning.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 December 2020 source ↗

Donna Tartt American novelist and writer

All kinds of ridiculous things, like worrying about the lobsters I see in restaurant tanks in Chinatown.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 October 2013 source ↗

Susan Calman Scottish comedian

Looking at conspiracy theories about JFK on the internet.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 November 2018 source ↗