Lemn Sissay: What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

The question

What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

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

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”

The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 122 →

Adam Lambert American singer

“You’re never going to make it.” It was some guy I was dating. I had the last laugh.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 February 2023 source ↗

Jon Snow

“You pinko!” by a Tory minister signing off at the end of an interview with me during the EU referendum campaign.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 March 2024 source ↗

Fearne Cotton

People have said, “I wish you would die.” That’s the stark truth of being in the public eye – people dehumanise you and say ghastly things.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 March 2026 source ↗

Cybill Shepherd American actress and former model

A review that said I had the charm of a hamster.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2008 source ↗