“You’ll never, ever work.” When you are young and full of hopes and dreams it’s devastating. I am just grateful that I thought: “Well, I’m going to try.”
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
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.
Edward Bond, the playwright, said I was like a turd flowing on the effluent of British culture.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 February 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 124 →An English teacher said, “You’ll never make anything of yourself.”
As a young actor, again at the Citizens theatre, I was making an exit and a theatregoer leaned over the balcony and said, “You’re terrible!”
A friend and I were talking about eating disorders and he said: “Well, we never have to worry about you not eating.”
More from Richard Eyre
View profile →In despair, because of my wife’s illness.
The rest is silence.
At university in the 60s, I thought social justice was going to improve exponentially. How wrong I was.
Warmth and confidence.
Curious, energetic, droll.
When I was doing a masterclass at a theatre and I had to leave the stage because I was about to shit my pants.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 368 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 205 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 74 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 38 answers
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