Louis Smith
English artistic gymnast
When I was a kid with no responsibilities.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 July 2013 source ↗
When were you happiest?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Now. I’ve learned to adjust my expectations to reality better than when I was 20 or 10.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 576 →
Zoë Wanamaker
American-born British actress
Getting married at Islington register office in 1994.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2013 source ↗
The last few years. There’s a beauty to getting to an age where you really don’t care about stuff that used to bother you.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 March 2024 source ↗
Seth Meyers
American comedian and TV host
My wedding day, listening to my brother’s best-man speech.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2015 source ↗
More from Noah Harari
View profile →I was almost run over by a bus when I was 13. And in 1991, in the Gulf war, an Iraqi missile hit close to my house.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
When I was 16, at the beginning of the summer vacation, I worked in a factory that made industrial valves and I was a much worse industrial valve producer than historian.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
That I still don’t understand life. When I was young, I thought at some point I would find somebody who does. I am 45, and there is a good chance that I’ll never meet somebody like that.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
When my dog died a couple of years ago. We were in Greece on vacation and a friend was watching her at home, and she was bitten by a snake. We rushed home, but we were too late by a few hours.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
I would like to come out at 16 or 17, and not 21.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
On a personal level, the friend who is a single mum raising two kids by herself during this Covid era. She is a real hero. If a historical personality, I choose Mikhail Gorbachev, who probably saved the world from world war three.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 October 2021 source ↗
More on time & hindsight
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 131 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 70 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 58 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Abi Morgan, Abigail Breslin, Adam Kay, Adeel Akhtar, Adrian Dunbar, Adrian Edmondson
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject