The question
What lesson has mattered most in your life?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Never ever think that things are going to turn out all right.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 June 2026 source ↗
Your lowest moment is temporary.
You have to ride the wave and never wait for it to be calm, because it never will be.
To be led by love and not judgment.
Do the secret thing you know you were born to do.
A review of Phèdre said – because I was quite large at the time – Toby Stephens’s Hippolytus needs to get on a StairMaster.
I was in a restaurant with my daughter in Los Angeles and I had an accident involving a stomach upset. That was mortifying for both of us.
There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.
To be completely alone.
I cry all the time. It’s embarrassing. I mostly cry when my children perform something at school. My wife regularly says, “Do you see any other fathers weeping?” But I can’t stop myself.
Ulysses – I’ve tried many times and never got through it.
Shinya Yamanaka, Diana Athill, Mario Molina, Phoebe Dynevor, Isabel Allende, Chiwetel Ejiofor
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