Never ever think that things are going to turn out all right.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
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
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.
To let things go.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 132 →
Gino D'Acampo
Italian-British celebrity chef and media personality
Minimum effort, maximum satisfaction. That’s the way everyone should live.
Living life to the full, not having regrets and not trying to plan your future too much. Just enjoy every minute.
John Waters
American filmmaker
A 'no' is free.
More from Helen George
View profile →When I was young, I was pretty reckless – my 20s were quite hedonistic. I don’t know whether I’ve been close to death, but I may have been without realising.
To still be working.
As a child playing in my parents’ garden in Birmingham, which they still have, and where my daughters play, swinging on my swing that my dad made for me.
Going through a divorce.
Waitressing. I was so bad. I smashed things. I once mistakenly ordered a very expensive bottle of wine for a table. They thought they were ordering a very average bottle of wine, and I ordered them an £800 bottle and they drank it. I got the sack a few weeks later.
A grandfather clock for my partner’s birthday.
More on time & hindsight
- When were you happiest? 576 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 72 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 59 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 25 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 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
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daryl McCormack, Ed Harris, Eleanor Tomlinson, Felicity Jones, Frank Cottrell-Boyce
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