English singer
Still being here, aged 60. If I thought I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
One question · 6 of 205 answers to it
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
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.
American singer and songwriter
Deciding what and who I wanted to be early on in life.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2022
British musician
Writing songs that can be handed down through generations.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2014
New Zealand actor
Still being in work. And my vineyards; they’re beautiful.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Working on myself. I’m a work in progress to the end.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Former British politician, broadcaster and writer
As health minister, I brought in breast and cervical cancer screening. And in 1994 I called the first debate on gay rights for a quarter-century and we got the age of consent down to 18.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
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 is the most important lesson life has taught you?
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.
British socialite
Discipline. Also to have a goal, however small and whatever it may be.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
English snooker player
Perspective. I used to zoom in and it would be all catastrophic, now I zoom out and get a bit of perspective.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2023
Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter
You only get out what you put in. Karma – it all comes round.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2023
What role should instinct play in major decisions?
Originally asked
The American Academy of Achievement, to its honourees, its oral-history interviews
Near-verbatim recurring Academy prompt about judgment under pressure.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
The value of a coin toss is not seeing whether it lands on heads or tails. It’s noticing whether you are disappointed in the result or what you’re wishing for when it’s flipping
Recorded · In My Non-Expert Opinion · 2024
English television presenter
I didn’t listen to my instincts, essentially, and I presumed other people knew more than me, and actually, nobody knows more about you than you.
Recorded · The Talks · 2025
Author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things
What I’ve really learned in my 43 years is that the body does not lie; the body actually tells you what’s right and wrong.
Recorded · The Great Discontent · 2012
What single thing would improve the quality of 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.
Australian professional tennis player
To move like I did in my early 20s. I’ve had knee and hip surgery, and my toe joint fused since.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Following the Zen proverb: you should sit and meditate for 20 minutes; if you’re too busy, then you should sit and meditate for an hour.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
American television host, personality and actor
If we went back to house phones and were a bit more disconnected.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2021
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1211
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 47
- Sport 109
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 Kay, Barbara Hulanicki, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Billy Porter, Brenda Blethyn, Chris Packham, Clive Myrie, Desmond Tutu, Donatella Versace, Emily Fischer, Gareth Bale, Irvine Welsh, James Lavelle, Jenny Agutter, Jimmy Akingbola, Kathy Lette, Liev Schreiber, Lisa Randall, Lucy Ives, Michelle Visage, Nelson Mandela, Nicola Roberts, Penny Lancaster, Rachel Maddow, Rahul Dravid, Rana el Kaliouby, Richard Leakey, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Robert Bathurst, Roger Taylor, Sarah Brown, Shaznay Lewis, Shobna Gulati, Stephen Talasnik, Steve Buscemi, Terry Crews, Tom Wolfe, Vince Gill, Whitney Cummings, Yehuda Amichai
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
- 8,105
- 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.