Nicola Adams
British boxer
When I won gold at the London Olympic Games.
When were you happiest?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
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.
I have a penchant for happiness. I have experienced euphoria before a migraine, which may not count, but I have also felt immense happiness leaning back in a chair in sunlight, puttering in my garden, reading, dancing, immediately after giving birth and when writing.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →
David Baddiel
Comedian and writer
I’ve never been entirely happy, although for about 45 seconds after David Platt scored the winning goal against Belgium in the World Cup in 1990, I kind of blacked out with joy.
Edward Fox
British actor
Aside from family life, which is the ultimate happiness, when I see or hear a great artist.
Laura Kenny
English cyclist
On my wedding day.
More from Siri Hustvedt
View profile →I would have articulated aloud the comments I too often suppressed out of deference to arrogant, condescending, sexist bores.
The man who asked me directions on the subway seven years ago: I am so sorry for sending you to Queens rather than to the Bronx.
I was a floor model briefly at Bloomingdale’s in New York in 1979. I hated it. When no one was watching, I would lock myself in the toilet and read.
The Blazing World.
More on time & hindsight
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 137 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this
Lance Black, Viv Albertine, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Irvine Welsh, Meg Rosoff, Sue Townsend
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject