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.
“And for you, sir?” It happens a lot.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 May 2025 source ↗
“What makes you think you are so special?”
I was thrown out of a club by bouncers when I walked into somebody and told them that I was registered blind. They said: “Don’t give a fuck – you don’t belong in here.” As a straight white man, it gives you a taste of what other people have to contend with.
“You’re a wonderful musician but a terrible friend.” It was Daniel Barenboim, the famous conductor, because I didn’t have time in the calendar to work with him.
Edward Bond, the playwright, said I was like a turd flowing on the effluent of British culture.
Not knowing who my family are.
A ballet dancer.
Throwing up all over the red velvet seats in the House of Lords on a school trip, aged nine.
High-functioning introvert.
When I decided that Mavis Staples was right – I don’t need to despise myself.
Nick Cave for his determination to hold a space for public discourse on the deep and difficult and mysterious elements of life.
Giovanna Fletcher, Lucy Lawless, Michelle Visage, Hugh Skinner, Bruno Tonioli, Pauline Black
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