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.
To believe my eyes and not my ears.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 January 2024 source ↗
You are your own greatest asset.
I think that is the most important lesson you learn in life, that you have to be ready to make a compromise. You do not compromise your principles, but you have to be ready to compromise. You have to understand that you cannot get your way 100 percent. Life is too complicated. You are not an island, and you work in a social setting, and you need to understand that you work always — at the family level, at the society level — to work out the compromise that is perceived to be fair. You don’t get 100 percent of what you want, but at least you will get the basic minimum that you require.
So I think failure is important in my career.
To have the courage to fail.
My friend Fritha Goodey wouldn’t have committed suicide.
Not marrying the person I wanted to marry, but now I think it’s probably good that I didn’t.
I try too hard not to get things wrong.
Any unread book a friend bought me.
Another actress once said to me, “I’ve told you huge lies to make you feel good about yourself.” I’m not going to say who.
I once walked up to Harriet Walter while she was having lunch on her own because I thought I knew her, and then when I got up to the table I realised I didn’t know her, I just recognised her because she was Harriet Walter.
Daphne Guinness, Billy Crudup, Desmond Tutu, Michelle Visage, Lucy Lawless, Giovanna Fletcher
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