Paapa Essiedu
British actor
To find as many moments to laugh as possible.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
It’s all a gift. So be grateful for every day.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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Diana Athill
Editor and memoirist
That this was true, I owe to Montaigne. I can’t remember when I read, or was told, that he considered it a good thing to spend a short time every day thinking about death, thus getting used to its inevitability and coming to understand that something inevitable is natural and can’t be too bad, but it was in my early teens, and it struck me as a sensible idea. Of course I didn’t set out to think about death in a regular way every day, but I did think about it quite often, and sure enough, it worked.
Joseph Fiennes
English actor
To fail better next time.
Worry about the things you can control and don’t worry about the things you can’t.
More from Bear Grylls
View profile →Resilience, courage and kindness, as compassionate points to follow.
Where do I begin? There have been a lot.
Light of the Almighty in my heart.
Holding the hand of some random lady at an airport who I mistook for my wife, Shara.
My failures have taught me more than the successes, so not much.
He knew where life was to be found.
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Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Alex Lawther, Erin O'Connor, Henry Marsh, Roger Ebert, Barack Obama
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