Now. My life is better with every year of living it.
When were you happiest?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
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
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
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.
On stage – the Old Vic in 1981 and Glastonbury last year.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 582 →
Rachel Whiteread
English artist
When my children arrived.
Matthew Bourne
British choreographer
Can't quantify – I am often happy.
Kylie Minogue
Australian singer and actress
One of the times I was in love.
More from Kevin Rowland
View profile →Gerry Adams, because he’s got incredible integrity and vision, and he’s had to put up with so much flak.
I’d have stuck with the original Dexys Midnight Runners look we started in 1978, which became known as the New Romantic look a couple of years later. Our management and record label talked us out of it. Later, Duran Duran and Spandau came out with that look and that made us look old-fashioned.
I worked in the stores of Edgware hospital when I was about 17, and it was grey and depressing.
My brother Pete passing on in 2005.
Insanity. I am on a recovery programme – clean from drugs and drink for many years – and if I stopped doing all that stuff I’d go crazy pretty quick and pick up drugs again, because I was a real fucking addict.
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
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- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 25 answers
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