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 Katherine Parkinson said elsewhere, not written here
I wish I hadn’t been a heavy smoker for so many years.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 September 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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Warren Buffett Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
In particular, my decision to sell McDonald's was a very big mistake. Overall, you would have been better off last year if I had regularly snuck off to the movies during market hours.

Recorded His letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in the 1998 annual report, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., February 1999 source ↗

Tracey Ullman British and American actress
I would have stopped making records after They Don’t Know.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2017 source ↗

I would find a much better way of looking after my mum in her last three years of dementia. I did my best, but it was incredibly difficult to find the right kind of care unless you’ve got £3,000 a week to spend.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 May 2026 source ↗

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