To my parents, for being such a bitch.
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.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →My dad, because he died before I could say goodbye.
To the British public for my time on X Factor.
My younger self. I told myself so often that I was not good enough, that I was not smart enough, that I was not interesting enough, that I was boring and ugly. I wasn’t kind to my body, and I did and said things to myself that I would never do or say to a friend.
More from Gloria Steinem
View profile →I’ve had cancer three times, but never felt close to death except when I walked between parked cars on my street and a car sped past my nose.
I’m walking down a street in New York, the sun is shining, I’m on my way to see friends who are chosen family—and I’ve just written a couple of pages that I like.
In my 30s, I was staring at a pair of expensive boots in a shop window when the photographer Gordon Parks came up behind me. He instantly understood, because he grew up even poorer than me; he made me buy them on my credit card.
Dr Denis Mukwege, because he is to sexualised violence against females what Mandela was to apartheid.
First a horse rancher, then a dancer.
I would love to have a good memory. I’m at an age when remembering something right away is as good as an orgasm.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 219 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- 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? 61 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Anita Rani, Caroline Lucas, Chris Bryant, Jess Phillips, John Prescott, John Simpson
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject