My father, with whom I had a complex relationship: often, when I was young, his desire to protect me clashed with the stubbornness of my choices.
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
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.
The trans community because I didn’t use the correct words, but I’ve learned from my mistake.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 December 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →
Monty Don
English horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer
My children. I was away an awful lot when they were little and not very good at being a father when I was around. I could have done better.
Julian Clary
English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter
I’ve made some terrible remarks about people over the years in the interests of light entertainment, and I regret them all.
Vick Hope
British television and radio presenter
My younger self. I told myself so often that I was not good enough, that I was not smart enough, that I was not interesting enough, that I was boring and ugly. I wasn’t kind to my body, and I did and said things to myself that I would never do or say to a friend.
More from Rose McGowan
View profile →Waking people up.
Falling down a mine shaft in New Mexico while filming.
When I was 15, I conned my way into an office job at a company that represented makers of breast implants. The manager had a wart on the end of her tongue that she’d push against her teeth, making a very specific sound.
A mortician – I worked in a funeral home when I was 14.
A warm blanket.
I wouldn’t have taken that meeting [with Weinstein in 1997].
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Kiefer Sutherland, Romesh Ranganathan, Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Hodge, Griff Rhys Jones, Lolita Chakrabarti
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject