Irvine Welsh: What has been your biggest disappointment? — FLAPSS

What has been your biggest disappointment?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Irvine Welsh said elsewhere, not written here

There’s been the odd beauty on the dance floor I really ought to have gone home with.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Others on this question

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Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008

If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. … And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months.

Recorded Jon Sopel, BBC News interview, the White House, 24 July 2015 source ↗

Rory Kinnear English actor

Finding cucumber in things is a continual disappointment.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 August 2017 source ↗

Terry O'Neill British photographer

Not photographing Marilyn Monroe.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2017 source ↗

Kevin Rowland British singer

My brother Pete passing on in 2005.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2025 source ↗

More from Irvine Welsh

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Question What do you consider your greatest achievement? Craft & work

I haven’t achieved anything of note yet.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Question When were you happiest? Time & hindsight

Happiness is mostly intrinsic: you’re either a happy soul or a miserable bastard. Fortunately, I’m the former.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

When a pal grabbed hold of me as I fell into an unbanistered stairwell at a rave. Would have been curtains, but for his sharp reaction.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Question What is the worst job you have done? Craft & work

Laying down slabs for the council.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Question What does love feel like? Relationships

When you can barely stand to look at someone without turning away to catch your breath.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Question Which living person do you most admire, and why? Values & belief

Artists who do their own thing, without compromise: Ken Loach, Bob Dylan and James Kelman.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

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