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 Ronald Harwood said elsewhere, not written here
The death of my wife: I’d happily have gone first.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 November 2016 source ↗

Others on this question

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Kevin Rowland British singer
I’d have stuck with the original Dexys Midnight Runners look we started in 1978, which became known as the New Romantic look a couple of years later. Our management and record label talked us out of it. Later, Duran Duran and Spandau came out with that look and that made us look old-fashioned.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2025 source ↗

Harlan Coben American author
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but if I could go back and fix the mistake, I wouldn’t be here.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 August 2024 source ↗

Jodi Picoult American author
I would not let Nick Cassavetes direct My Sister’s Keeper, the film. He said [the ending] was going to match what was in the book, then changed it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 September 2022 source ↗

Beverley Knight Singer and stage actor
Some of the neuroses of my 20s. I knew I had a great talent, but I thought it was unmarketable because I felt ugly.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 July 2022 source ↗

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