RM
When I am doing things that I feel I am not obliged to do.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 September 2011 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?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.
Others on this question
View all 577 →
Margaret Atwood
Novelist, poet and critic
Can't pick and choose, it's bad luck.
Terry O'Neill
British photographer
I’ve been happy all my life.
Helena Bonham Carter
Actor
Both of the days my children were born. It was like I’d stepped through a mirror and everything turned Technicolor.
Ian McEwan
British novelist and screenwriter
In my mid- to late-20s, in London, beginning to publish, living hand to mouth, having fun. Also now, when love and life and work have finally cohered.
More on time & hindsight
- What lesson has mattered most in your life? 138 answers
- What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What worries you about getting older? 61 answers
- What counsel has proved most valuable to you? 28 answers
- If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Christian Louboutin, Douglas Stuart, Rick Stein, Heston Blumenthal, Terence Conran, Keith McNally
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject