Niamh Cusack: If you could edit your past, what would you change?

If you could edit your past, what would you change?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Niamh Cusack said elsewhere, not written here

I would have gone to my singing lessons at Guildhall.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 October 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 203 →

Marina Diamandis

I would get therapy in my early 20s.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 June 2025 source ↗

Adam Kay British comedy writer, author, youtuber, comedian and former physician

I could have done without being sexually assaulted, or having an eating disorder, or pushing myself to breaking point, but every chapter of my life brought me here.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2023 source ↗

Adrian Edmondson English actor, comedian, musician and writer

I practise stoicism. Not the stiff-upper-lip, modern stuff, but the ancient Greek philosophy. You have to accept what you can’t change. I try to face forwards all the time. When that doesn’t work, I think about buying a machine gun.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗

Suzanne Vega American singer-songwriter

I would have tried to meet Lou Reed backstage. I went to see him for years, and never tried to meet him. Eventually we met at award shows and did become friends.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2017 source ↗