Writer
There’s a lot of ways to talk about this but in terms of writer’s block, every block I’ve ever had, every metaphysical obstacle and every obstacle inside of me that has prevented me from…
Recorded · The Creative Independent
One question · 6 of 69 answers to it
What do you do when you feel creatively blocked or stuck?
Originally asked
The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series
A recurring Creative Independent question whose wording distinguishes a lasting block from a temporary impasse.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Writer and poet
Here is one of the methods I use that has been really helpful, which is I very rarely get blocked when I’m doing something I really love.
Recorded · The Creative Independent · 2026
American-Norwegian musician
I’m not sure. I haven’t actually felt very stuck creatively or sonically. And when I think about it in hindsight, it’s just been on the forefront of my mind and what I think about.
Recorded · The Creative Independent
Singer-songwriter and musician
If I start to feel stagnant, going to see a good show always helps. Watching a great band makes me want to play music. Like, when we opened for Queens of the Stone Age a few years back.
Recorded · The Creative Independent · 2017
American musician
It comes in fits and starts. In the past I thought about them as creative blocks, but I don’t really think about it like that anymore. I just think about it as a season. That’s okay.
Recorded · The Creative Independent
American poet
I don’t get stuck creatively. I was built to use and know my body—to trust its limits, only in that they can be broken. My mind works like an athlete’s mind and body.
Recorded · The Creative Independent
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
English singer
To Be Young, Gifted And Black, by Nina Simone.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2014
American artist and activist
A Donny Hathaway song called Be Real Black For Me.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2018
American actress and politician
I Happen To Like New York: I tell people all the time, so they will be sure not to forget.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
Which writers or artists most influenced your work?
Originally asked
The Paris Review, to novelists and poets, The Art of Fiction
A durable Art of Fiction question asked through named literary influences and artistic models.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Film director and screenwriter
Truffaut, Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, they were the great directors of the Nouvelle Vague. They found the freedom to make exactly the films they wanted.
Recorded · The Talks · 2014
Filmmaker, Educator, and DJ
William Greaves’s film Symbiopsychotaxiplasm was an important early influence…Stuart Hall was a massive influence on this film
Recorded · BOMB Magazine · 2020
Biochemist and pharmacologist; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine
It was a very important finding for us because we were involved in nucleic acids. There weren’t many people interested in nucleic acids.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
How do you balance creative work with other responsibilities?
Originally asked
The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series
The Creative Independent repeatedly asks working artists how they divide time between creative practice and administrative, family, or second-job obligations.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Filmmaker, Educator, and DJ
I prefer not to compartmentalize my life.
Recorded · The Creative Independent · 2019
Structural biologist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 2009
It is possible to be a good scientist, a good mother and have a family and even bake a cake.
Recorded · The Economic Times · 2016
Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
You have to make sacrifices on either side. You also to have an understanding family, to know that there are going to be some sacrifices.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1205
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 46
- Sport 108
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
- Values & belief 13
- Change of mind 1
- Failure & regret 9
- Craft & work 36
- Money & investment 4
- Taste & recommendation 6
- Relationships 5
- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →Adam Lambert, Amy Poehler, Andre Russell, Belinda Carlisle, Beverley Knight, Bobbi Brown, Brett Story, Brooke Shields, Chad Hartigan, Corinne Bailey Rae, Cory Taylor, Daniel Ek, Eddie Izzard, Ellen Ochoa, George Schaller, Graham Duncan, Jeremy Vine, Jessica Hopper, Jessye Norman, Judith Light, Jürgen Klopp, Katie Kitamura, Kevin Rose, Lauren Groff, Liza Minnelli, Luis von Ahn, Lynsey Addario, Malorie Blackman, Melanie Chisholm, Natalie Imbruglia, Olly Alexander, Richard Coles, Robin Gibb, Roger Ebert, Roger Federer, Sebastian Junger, Shigeru Ban, Stéphane Lambiel, Tayi Tibble, Whitney Cummings
Answers that stay at one address
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
- People
- 1,679
- Answers
- 7,485
- Questions
- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.