Nicola Walker
British actress
My father, because he’s never run away from anything.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 January 2017 source ↗
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the biggest obstacle you have faced professionally?
Craft & work
Question
Which writers or artists most influenced your work?
Taste & recommendation
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Barack Obama, because he believed he could be president of the United States, and he succeeded. He was kind, and he tried to set a high standard of leadership.
Vanity Fair, Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 6 December 2019 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 402 →
Elaine Paige
English singer and actress
The Queen. Long may she reign.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 September 2016 source ↗
Ivan Lendl
Czech and American tennis player
People who have done really well in their sports: in tennis, Steffi Graf; in ice hockey, Wayne Gretzky.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 July 2017 source ↗
Jim Kerr
Scottish singer and songwriter
A friend named Paul Hill [one of the Guildford Four] spent 15 years in prison doing time for crimes he did not commit. We communicate most days. I admire the hell out of him.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 October 2022 source ↗
More from John Lewis
View profile →I don't want to die. I don't think I'm going to die…but we all have to die. Since I do, I hope I live on in the hearts and minds of people.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 6 December 2019 source ↗
You must find a way to get in the way, you must find a way to get into trouble — good trouble, necessary trouble.
Recorded Emory University Quadrangle, Atlanta, Emory News Center, Emory University, 12 May 2014 source ↗
More than anything else, I had to combat the barriers, and we tore down those barriers. I just had to set a sail against the wind, those strong winds, to end segregation and racial discrimination, but somehow, in some way, I didn’t let those barriers keep me down.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗
Jim Lawson. Jim Lawson was an unbelievable human being. Born in Ohio. He was a pacifist. He studied Gandhi. He was part of the Methodist Student Movement. He lived in India. He became an organizer for FOR, the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Recorded Julian Bond, Explorations in Black Leadership interview, Explorations in Black Leadership, University of Virginia source ↗
On the Freedom Rides in the year 1961, when I was beaten at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, I thought I was going to die. On March 7, 1965, when I was hit in the head with a night stick by a state trooper at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I thought I was going to die.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Chicago, 10 June 2004 source ↗
Buying art…. But it makes me happy!
Recorded Vanity Fair, Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 6 December 2019 source ↗
More on values & belief
- What is the trait you most deplore in others? 196 answers
- What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong? 75 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 27 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 13 answers
- What is the most overrated virtue? 10 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 8 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Abi Morgan, Adam Clayton, Adeel Akhtar, Adwoa Aboah, Alfre Woodard, Alice Eve
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All values & belief questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject