Vanessa Redgrave: When were you happiest?

When were you happiest?

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.

Recorded Vanessa Redgrave said elsewhere, not written here

Is all happiness in the past? Well, the births of three children. And playing with children and grandchildren.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 September 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Doris Day American actress and singer

My childhood summers in Trenton, Ohio, and starting work at Warner Bros.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 1995 source ↗

Florence Welch British singer

Either pottering around on my own or performing, so I don’t know what kind of person that makes me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2015 source ↗

Eve Ensler American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist

In my 60s. So many things that tortured me when I was younger have fallen away. Writing The Apology, the letter I wrote in my father’s voice, apologising for abusing me, has freed me from the last vestiges of anger, confusion, rancour and hate. It released me from a frame that had determined my life.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 June 2019 source ↗

John Grisham American writer and lawyer

This morning. I had a typical day: got up early, took the dog for a walk, went to the gym for an hour, then wrote for four hours. That makes me a very happy person.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 December 2015 source ↗