Maggie O'Farrell: What does love feel like?

What does love feel like?

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.

Recorded Maggie O'Farrell said elsewhere, not written here

Effervescence in the soul.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Andrea Riseborough British actress

Right now, terrifying.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 November 2016 source ↗

Joseph Fiennes English actor

A dizzy flamenco.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 October 2008 source ↗

Hugh Skinner

Like nothing’s a problem.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Griff Rhys Jones British actor and comedian

Adolescent love feels like exquisite self-indulgence. Long-term love feels like a warm bath that needs a trickle of extra hot water every now and then.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 December 2017 source ↗

More from Maggie O'Farrell

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Question What is the most important lesson life has taught you? Time & hindsight

To keep going and never give up, and to enjoy it to the absolute full because, at any moment, the curtain can fall.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗

Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

How long have you got? I have written a memoir and the subtitle is Seventeen Brushes with Death.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗

Question Which living person do you most admire, and why? Values & belief

Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed George Floyd’s murder. It took astonishing courage to stand on the pavement in front of those policemen, and we all owe her so much.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗