IW
Happiness is mostly intrinsic: you’re either a happy soul or a miserable bastard. Fortunately, I’m the former.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 577 →Probably the curtain call of my final performance when I played King Lear.
Jaime Winstone
English actress
At work, doing what I do best.
Adrian Dunbar
Irish actor
My first year of drama school: a sense of freedom, doing something I wanted to do and being with lovely people.
Each time I gave birth.
More from Irvine Welsh
View profile →When a pal grabbed hold of me as I fell into an unbanistered stairwell at a rave. Would have been curtains, but for his sharp reaction.
Laying down slabs for the council.
When you can barely stand to look at someone without turning away to catch your breath.
Artists who do their own thing, without compromise: Ken Loach, Bob Dylan and James Kelman.
There’s been the odd beauty on the dance floor I really ought to have gone home with.
I haven’t achieved anything of note yet.
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