I hope the happiest moment is still ahead of me.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I hope the happiest moment is still ahead of me.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 source ↗
Right now: Summer. Dusk. On my couch watching Australian Open tennis with my kids and dog. Doors wide open to a beautiful body of water. The first star of the night just appeared in the sky. Life is magical.
Watching Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury. During Because The Night I actually shouted, "This is the greatest moment of my life!"
My college years when I was 17 to 19, before the responsibilities of adulthood, just doing the things that I was good at and liked – computers, maths, further maths (I was a geek).
This morning, surrounded by my children and my wife, Kayte.
Eight or nine years ago, I disgraced myself in the Japanese ambassador’s home in Dublin, at a celebration for my late mother-in-law’s book about living in Japan. Afterwards, when I had to apologise, she told me it was the worst night of her life and, because I was drunk enough not to remember the details, it will never not be the most embarrassing night of my life. People are filling in details even now – “Remember when you fell under the table during the first course?”
Walking along Oxford Street on Saturday pulling a shopping trolley that my mother bought me. I remember saying, “I’m never going to use that!” and there I was, very grateful to have it in my life. She died before Christmas and I can’t ring her to tell her that she was right.
Actors live in a constant state of disappointment. I’ll never be happy with what I’ve done.
A hairdresser – I still want to be a hairdresser.
Not being able to breathe – I get very panicky at the thought.
I talk over people all the time.
Paterson Joseph, Aidan Gillen, Pete Postlethwaite, Charlize Theron, Martin Freeman, Dominic Cooper
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