Nadiya Hussain
British television chef, baker and author
When somebody runs you a bath and orders a takeaway after a long day.
What does love feel like?
Question
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Daily life
Question
What does the first sixty minutes of your day look like?
Daily life
Question
What is the book you have given most as a gift, and why?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
Which writers or artists most influenced your work?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
It is the hardest thing, and inside of it is another secret — we don’t talk about it enough — which is, for anyone who is caretaking someone who’s been sick or who has lost someone, for anyone who’s accompanying someone in a real way, there are times when that love takes every ounce of courage and perseverance that you have in your body, and those are also the times when you like yourself the best.
Krista Tippett, On Being with Krista Tippett, The On Being Project, 2020 source ↗
Others on this question
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Jo Nesbø
Norwegian writer and musician
Exultation, fear, quiet comfort and even hate.
Paul Heaton
British musician
Like someone is hitting your heart with a cricket bat.
More from Jacqueline Novogratz
View profile →I am lucky not to have felt burned out. That probably goes back to what energizes me. I get great energy from connecting with people we are serving especially. And if the work feels too hard, there is nothing like a long run to revive my spirit…
It is usually 4 or 5 in the morning so I go downstairs and make tea and then read a bit of poetry – Mary Oliver, Rumi, Hafiz, Seamus Heaney, Yeats, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Rilke are among my favorites…
But the book I give right now in this time of so much despair is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, where he really looks at people in the Holocaust and asks himself, why did some just sort of crumple up and die and others stayed resilient and strong? And that at the end of the day, no one can take our dignity away from us.
I think I did always want to change the world from the time I was six. And I guess that was part of both the positive and the pressure.
It is usually 4 or 5 in the morning so I go downstairs and make tea and then read a bit of poetry – Mary Oliver, Rumi, Hafiz, Seamus Heaney, Yeats, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Rilke are among my favorites…
I would say just start, but don’t start by asking, “What is my purpose? What is my passion?” Start by asking, “What are the problems that need to be solved? Which ones attract me?” And take a step toward that. Take one step, and the work will teach you where you need to take the next step. Build tools in your toolbox.
More on relationships
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Terence Conran, Bobbi Brown, Henry R. Kravis, Akio Toyoda, Nadiya Hussain, Omid Djalili
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