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.

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Jeanette Winterson Novelist and essayist
Happiness is planting the vegetables, sleeping with my girlfriend, running, doing my work, sitting by the fire with a book and a glass of wine... I need a reason to be unhappy, but do not need one to be quietly cheerful.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 December 2009 source ↗
Salman Rushdie Indian-British-American novelist
I’m pretty happy right now, although the plague is a problem. I got the virus early, and was unwell for two and a half weeks. I was spared the worst symptoms; I realise more strongly every day that I’m one of the very lucky ones.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2020 source ↗
Danny DeVito American actor, comedian and filmmaker
I have been very fortunate in my life. I have had a lot of happiness. I have a great family and I work a lot, and that's what I like to do.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 January 2013 source ↗
Sally Mann Photographer
On the island of Bequia—one summer, out of the blue, a benefactor (thank you, Charlene) flew our entire family there and put us up in a cliffside house that was a weird mixture of Gaudí and Fred Flintstone and where we went to sleep at eight and got up at five. In between we read, swam, hiked, and unknowingly enjoyed the last moment before the irrevocable shear of adolescence set in.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2018 source ↗

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Maggie O'Farrell, Jeanette Winterson, Judith Kerr, Anne Enright, Jay McInerney, Ethan Hawke

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