IM
To have grown up with my siblings. They were at least 10 years older than me.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 August 2018 source ↗
The question
If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Rosanna Arquette
American actress
I would have skipped the time my daughter was nine to 13, when I was in a toxic relationship.
Emma Barnett
British broadcaster and journalist
Not being able to have a baby for two and a half years. Lots of people say it made me a better person; I think it made me worse. You go to a very dark place with your friends because they are having kids, and you want to be happy for them but you’re not.
Gareth Bale
Welsh footballer
Nothing. Without my past I wouldn’t be who I am today.
Bianca Jagger
Nicaraguan human rights advocate
I sometimes wish I had had the courage to be a politician – but I made the decision to be a human rights defender instead. I realised I cannot be both at the same time, because they may be incompatible.
More from Ian McEwan
View profile →Having a gun held to my head at a May Day rally during the revolution in Grenada. I was mistaken for a CIA agent.
In my mid- to late-20s, in London, beginning to publish, living hand to mouth, having fun. Also now, when love and life and work have finally cohered.
Angela Merkel. Under attack from all sides, she tries to keep alive the dreams of a tolerant, inclusive, open society.
The BBC World Service followed by the dawn chorus.
Exhilarating. I’ve been extremely lucky in that the person I love, Annalena, happens to be my wife.
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