A travel agent.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 September 2024 source ↗
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Archaeologist, pop star, store cashier.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 191 →
Mary McCartney
English photographer and cookbook author
A nurse, because my grandmother was a midwife. I was named after her but never got to meet her.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 February 2022 source ↗
Shaznay Lewis
English singer
An ambulance driver.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 June 2024 source ↗
A comedian or the guy who drives the little truck around airports that takes old ladies to their gate.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 January 2026 source ↗
More from Michael Stipe
View profile →Scarlet fever, 1962. Hypothermia, 1974. Lightning strike, 1986.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
Anyone I slept with before the age of 27, because I was a selfish, cold-ass bitch.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
A sustainable future for all. I could finally stop worrying.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
Deciding what I wanted to do at 15 and, against all odds, doing it.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
A page from Jim Morrison’s final notebook – I bought it as a birthday gift for a friend.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
Can I say: maybe tomorrow?
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2020 source ↗
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