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.
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Others on this question
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Paapa Essiedu
British actor
I was a happy kid. I had quite a small life: I grew up in Walthamstow and didn’t really leave east London. I didn’t go to the South Bank for the first time until I was 18 years old.
Charles Dance
British actor
Realising what I wanted to do as a career – aged about 22.
Charlotte Church
Welsh singer-songwriter and actress
In the first lockdown. Obviously, there was terrible grief and sadness and fear around, but there was also this reclaiming for nature. I was constantly at my allotment with the big kids and my husband.
In the orange blossom-filled streets of Seville, snogging on a park bench.
More from Irvine Welsh
View profile →There’s been the odd beauty on the dance floor I really ought to have gone home with.
Artists who do their own thing, without compromise: Ken Loach, Bob Dylan and James Kelman.
When you can barely stand to look at someone without turning away to catch your breath.
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.
I haven’t achieved anything of note yet.
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