Skip to content

The question

How would you sum yourself up in three words?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Others on this question

View all 114 →

More from Neil Gaiman

View profile →
Question When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do? Daily life
And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.
Recorded 134th Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, University of the Arts (uarts.edu), via the Internet Archive, 17 May 2012 source ↗

More on identity & self

Also answered this

Toni Morrison, Rory Stewart, Sam Ryder, Hamza Yassin, Layton Williams, Clare Bailey Mosley

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer