Gavin Rossdale
British musician
The fact that I am still making music.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
After losing my mum still managing to finish drama school, because that was really difficult. I lost her in the first year.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 191 →
Lionel Shriver
American author
A selection of single paragraphs that perfectly capture something I’ve thought or felt, even if it’s shameful or perverse.
Mike Skinner
English rapper
Original Pirate Material.
Jim Kerr
Scottish singer and songwriter
That’s easy. I’ve consistently punched above my weight.
More from Paapa Essiedu
View profile →Called me the N-word.
In 2016, the moment my agent rang me to tell me I’d got the part of Hamlet for the RSC. While I was on the phone, I looked to my left and turned to the right, and a bus whizzed by and the wing mirror was so close to me that it knocked my hat off.
I was a happy kid. I had quite a small life: I grew up in Walthamstow and didn’t really leave east London. I didn’t go to the South Bank for the first time until I was 18 years old.
I find it difficult to sit still.
To find as many moments to laugh as possible.
I would really love to know my parents as an adult. I lost my dad when I was 14 and my mum when I was 20.
More on craft & work
- What is the worst job you have done? 229 answers
- How do you know when a piece of work is finished? 67 answers
- What do you do when you feel creatively blocked or stuck? 66 answers
- How does a new work begin for you? 61 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you do? 46 answers
- What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job? 40 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Alice Eve, Alison Steadman, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Serkis, Anna Paquin, Archie Panjabi
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All craft & work questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject