HC
A white-hot explosion that turns into a comforting warmth.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 August 2024 source ↗
The question
How would you describe what love feels like to you?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.
Others on this question
View all 213 →
Robert Bathurst
English theatre and television actor
Unqualified. Also, there’s that strange moment when you’re listening to lyrics on Radio 2 and you think, “Ooh, that’s so deep”.
James Blunt
Singer, songwriter and musician
Like nothing else, I guess.
Safety, and being able to be completely yourself.
Greg James
British author, broadcaster, comedian, and presenter
An impenetrable team.
More from Harlan Coben
View profile →We are too often advised to live life to the fullest. That’s too much pressure. The key is to find joy and poignancy in the quiet and mundane. Life is lived between the so-called big moments.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but if I could go back and fix the mistake, I wouldn’t be here.
I worked a janitorial job, cleaning university dormitories after students had gone home for the summer. You can’t imagine the condition some of those rooms were in. They could have doubled as sets for a slasher film.
I was followed by a mob of fans when I was doing a photoshoot in Paris. When I signed autographs for them during a break, one remarked: “Who the fuck is Harlan Coben? I told you it wasn’t Bruce Willis.”
With a wistful smile.
I don’t even voice them. Perhaps the books are my outlet here.
More on relationships
- Which quality in your friends matters most to you? 65 answers
- Which teacher, parent, coach, or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them? 57 answers
- When you need counsel, who is the first person you call? 12 answers
- Which relationships did you tend well, and which did you neglect while other things felt urgent? 8 answers
- What has been most rewarding about being a parent? 7 answers
Also answered this
Mary McCartney, Adam Kay, Rose Tremain, Sandi Toksvig, Simon Mayo, Julie Andrews
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All relationships questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject