Salman Rushdie
Indian-British-American novelist
A writer, I’m sorry to say. Boring, I know, but true.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
First loved, then laid, then paid.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Alexander Armstrong
English actor, comedian, broadcaster and singer
When I was little I wanted to be a conductor. I knew there was a man in a smart coat who waved his arms around at the opera and I thought: "There's the job for me."
Julian Lennon
English musician, photographer, and philanthropist
A steam train driver.
Jeremy Deller
English artist
More successful with girls.
More from Lee Child
View profile →“Try this, you’ll love it.”
I’m from Birmingham. I’m not afraid of things. Things are afraid of me.
Nothing. If I’m worried or upset or tormented, I go to sleep quickly and easily, to find welcome oblivion.
More than I can, sadly. I led the softest of lives in the softest of times, and my daughter will face sterner challenges.
The exact median middle-aged black woman in the US. If hard work guaranteed success, she’d be the most successful person on the planet. But she isn’t, yet she keeps on going.
Always saying yes to people. For example, I’m doing this.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Robert Bathurst, Emeli Sandé, Floella Benjamin, Anna Friel, Albie Sachs, Adwoa Aboah
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- All identity & self questions
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