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If you could edit 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.

One of 24 questions in The Q&A here.

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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 1 Arts and letters 29 Politics and public life 4 Business and finance 1 Sport 1
Read by age Any age In their thirties 8 In their forties 6 In their fifties 9 In their sixties 9 Seventy and beyond 4
Lemn Sissay
I would build relationships. I would remember people’s significant moments. I would not fear closeness.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Imogen Poots
I would have been OK with feeling shy. In my teenage years, I thought being an actor meant that you had to be a little more performative.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2024 source ↗

Douglas Booth
I’d give my younger self the lessons I’ve learned over the years, sparing myself the need to figure everything out so publicly.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 February 2025 source ↗

Russell Mael
That Sparks predates the Beatles and it’s kind of all too obvious where they got a lot of their inspiration.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 May 2025 source ↗

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