My wife, just in case I’ve done something wrong.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 January 2025 source ↗
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing?
Death & what remains
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
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.
To the Scissor Sisters. Back in the day, I could be an absolute monster; I was a real asshole.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 July 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →My closest friend at uni – I sometimes retreat from life in quite an extreme way, without word. Back then, I didn’t really understand what I was doing.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 February 2025 source ↗
My late wife – she died of cancer. We tried everything we could do to save her. I wish that I could have done more and that I could have been with her at the moment she passed away. I couldn’t be in that room, because I knew it would be so devastating that I wouldn’t be able to take care of the kids after.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 January 2016 source ↗
To my first husband for being unfaithful, bossy, and eventually leaving him.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 December 2024 source ↗
More from Jake Shears
View profile →A Henry Darger painting. Sadly, I lost it in the divorce, but it was a great parting gift.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 July 2021 source ↗
The realisation that I am no longer young.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 July 2021 source ↗
It would definitely involve lots of sex. I would spend the afternoon having some crazy passionate declarative sex with my husband.
Recorded Clash, Last Day On Earth, 29 June 2012 source ↗
Five years ago, a concrete plug, a little bigger than a baseball, fell off a building on Hollywood Boulevard when I was riding in an open convertible. It shattered the windshield. It really shook me. I still have it on my mantel.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 July 2021 source ↗
Getting older and dying.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 July 2021 source ↗
More on failure & regret
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- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 60 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 35 answers
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