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I’d give myself some fashion sense.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 October 2020 source ↗
The question
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.
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Others on this question
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Mandy Patinkin
American actor and singer
I would have been a better listener. I would have pursued more friendships instead of focusing so much on work and myself. I’m doing all that now, but I’m running out of time.
I’d have reported the tutor who asked me to read an essay to him sitting on the toilet as he lay soaping himself in the bath.
The years of self-doubt.
Paterson Joseph
British actor and author
I wouldn’t live so long in France. After eight years, I came back to London.
More from Ian Rankin
View profile →There wasn’t a lot of bullying at my school, but there was a fair amount of ragging – and I knew which side I wanted to be on. I’d say sorry to anyone who felt picked on.
In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
Fondly and down the centuries. I think partly what drives writers to write is the yearning for immortality.
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