The more you face shame and stare it in the eyes and talk about it, the less potent it is.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 March 2026 source ↗
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.
The more you face shame and stare it in the eyes and talk about it, the less potent it is.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 March 2026 source ↗
Talk to people. Learn from them. And put your phone away.
That materialistic things will not make you happy.
Know the things you are responsible for and the things you aren’t.
Genuine love is given freely, not by force.
Impatience. I’m not very good at waiting around or dealing with things that aren’t moving at a pace that I want them to.
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.
Eager to learn.
I assumed that once I reached some level of achievement, I would feel fixed.
On radio, I once said “anal” instead of “angel”.
Picking myself back up after very tricky times and trying again.
Naga Munchetty, Kellie Maloney, Paul Merson, Helen Skelton, Mohamed ElBaradei, Helen George
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