The question
What lesson has mattered most in your life?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 ↗
Never ever think that things are going to turn out all right.
It's family, and it's faith, and it's friends. I would tell them that. Don't forget that. In your brilliance, don't turn your back on your friends. Don't think you're entitled to something because you're smarter than the next guy.
Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
Not really. I thought that getting the Nobel Prize was a big interruption in my career, I thought and it was very distracting. It takes a lot of time you know, it just takes time to be honoured, you have to travel and you have to give speeches of things you have, oh it’s so often that you get bored to tears when you hear your own voice. And it’s really taking a lot of your time and there’s no way that during this time you can start something new, I mean you just profit from what you’ve done and there is no time to develop new ideas.
Becoming a father.
Small things make me anxious – like social things – but I have no big fears because I have faith in my heart.
A soldier and adventure guy.
Why is your nose so wonky?
Too controlling about silly things like timings or not having toxic cleaning products in the house.
Resilience, courage and kindness, as compassionate points to follow.
Oliver Sacks, Paapa Essiedu, Warren Zevon, Simon Boas, Richard Coles, Robert Carlyle
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