I stopped drinking 18 or 19 years ago, and in an argument someone who will remain nameless said: “Oh just go and have a drink.” It was nasty.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
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.
When the surgeon told me I wouldn’t be able to play the cello again, in 2013. I have a herniated disc and it’s pressing on a nerve in my neck. I announced I was stopping playing in 2014. I absolutely did not want to stop.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 July 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
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Rita Wilson
American actress, singer, and producer
I was opening in a play in my 20s, and my agent came on opening night, brought flowers, took me out to dinner and then told me she was no longer going to be representing me.
“You’re getting old.” My son Harris was factually correct, but I didn’t need to hear it.
The second agent I had said: “The thing is, you look like something but then you open your mouth.” So I got myself a sketch show and left, and she lost out.
More from Julian Lloyd Webber
View profile →Twice I should have died in car accidents when both my cars were written off. I was completely unhurt; the cello was completely unhurt, too. A complete miracle.
Seeing Leyton Orient in the premiership.
Nothing: the good times, the bad times, they make your character.
A detective, a train driver on the underground and Leyton Orient’s centre forward.
Our beautiful cat was so ill that we were hours away from having her put down. Somehow, we’ve managed to nurse her back to full health again.
Frightening, exhilarating and all-consuming.
More on failure & regret
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- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 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? 60 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 35 answers
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Adam Clayton, Adam Kay, Adam Lambert, Alex Lawther, Alison Steadman, Ally McCoist
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