Zack Polanski: If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?

The question

If you could revise one chapter of 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.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Zack Polanski

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Nothing. Tony Benn, one of my favourite politicians, said, “I don’t care where you’ve been, I care where you’re going.”

The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

I sent off the letter. I probably made a technical mistake by giving it to a journalist before hearing from the Prime Minister because this journalist was working for a Sunday newspaper and gave it enormous press, and I think quite rightly the Prime Minister was annoyed that I had not given him the opportunity but never mind.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

Nuala McGovern

Fewer night shifts.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 November 2025 source ↗

Courtney Pine British jazz musician

I would have spent more time practising and got a proper lawyer to sort out my first album contract.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

Adwoa Aboah British fashion model

Nothing. Everything’s got me to this point and I had to learn lots of things. Maybe I just wouldn’t have been so terrified all the time and I would have got up a bit earlier – I missed quite a few mornings.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2019 source ↗