Ciarán Hinds: What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

The question

What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

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

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

As a young actor, again at the Citizens theatre, I was making an exit and a theatregoer leaned over the balcony and said, “You’re terrible!”

The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 July 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 122 →

Bear Grylls

Why is your nose so wonky?

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗

Rose Ayling-Ellis British actress

“I’ll tell you later.” They never do.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 August 2024 source ↗

Keir Starmer

There are yards and yards and yards of abuse every day. I ignore the lot of it.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

Lemn Sissay

When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗