Paul Smith
English fashion designer
I am a happy person. I am happy every day. But if I had to pick a time it would be the first time I fell in love.
When were you happiest?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Last summer, swimming in a waterfall in Cumbria with my daughters.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 576 →
Mel Giedroyc
British actress and comedian
Yesterday: sun-lounger, back garden, cup of tea, radio on.
Katie Price
English media personality and model
When my kids were born.
Stephen Merchant
English comedian and actor
Watching Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury. During Because The Night I actually shouted, "This is the greatest moment of my life!"
More from Maggie O'Farrell
View profile →Last week, while I was wet-wrapping my child’s chronic eczema.
Interrupting or talking over people. As a stammerer, I am particularly alert to this.
To keep going and never give up, and to enjoy it to the absolute full because, at any moment, the curtain can fall.
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.
“You’ll never walk again.” This was when I was eight or nine and recovering from viral encephalitis.
How long have you got? I have written a memoir and the subtitle is Seventeen Brushes with Death.
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- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
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Abi Morgan, Abigail Breslin, Adam Kay, Adeel Akhtar, Adrian Dunbar, Adrian Edmondson
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