The question
What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Hasn’t happened yet, it’s coming.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 April 2026 source ↗
“What makes you think you are so special?”
When the surgeon told me I wouldn’t be able to play the cello again, in 2013. I have a herniated disc and it’s pressing on a nerve in my neck. I announced I was stopping playing in 2014. I absolutely did not want to stop.
“I would love to go on a date with you, but I’d be too embarrassed.”
“I could never love you like that.”
Wondering why I can’t sleep.
There are no more interviews.
Both parents, I’ll write the book someday.
Quietly somewhat funny.
People finding out my greatest fear.
Martin Sheen, simply the kindest and most fun-loving person and serious activist I’ve ever known. If Jesus was alive today he’d point to Martin Sheen and say, “That’s what I was talking about.”
Andrew O’Hagan, Omid Djalili, John Waters, Eleanor Tomlinson, Julian Lloyd Webber, Stephanie Beacham
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