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.
Right now. It's a beautiful thing to find yourself "the wrong side of 40" and more in love with life than ever. I never tell people this publicly as they wrongly assume the only valid creative state is that of the cliche of the tubercular, tortured artist coughing up blood in his garret.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2011 source ↗
Now is pretty good; at home, the stove is burning and I’ve cleared the inbox enough to feel that I can relax.
I try to be happy whenever I can. I don’t fret about what’s past and we don’t know if there will be a future, so I make as much as I can out of what’s here now.
At boarding school, I was unable to get the main part in Hamlet, so I put on a production of The Homecoming with my friends. The teachers came to see it and said they didn’t know I had it in me. It felt very good.
At the South By Southwest Music Festival last March. Few things make me happier than going to concerts, and this was an epic evening.
My wife. She is the most beautiful person I know in every way and has an endless energy for other people that a vinegary old misanthrope like myself can only marvel at.
Drinking green tea with my wife and listening to Eno’s ‘Music For Airports’.
Emeli Sandé, Carl Barât, T Bone Burnett, Charlotte Church, Joss Stone, Mary J Blige
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