Louis Smith: When were you happiest?

When were you happiest?

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.

Recorded Louis Smith said elsewhere, not written here

When I was a kid with no responsibilities.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 July 2013 source ↗

Others on this question

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Stephen Dorff American actor

In the 90s. I am pretty happy now, but back then I didn’t have the heavier things that life brings as you get older.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 July 2021 source ↗

Benjamin Zephaniah British poet and author

In 1985, in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, sitting on the veranda with my grandmother, people-watching, and listening to poetry and local gossip.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2011 source ↗

Aretha Franklin

Right here, right now.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2003 source ↗

Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

Well, when in 1994 he was elected and I was given the privilege of introducing him to South Africa as our new president and to the world, I sort of whispered to God and said, “God, I don’t really mind now. I mean, if I die now, it would be almost the perfect moment.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗