There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Not applying myself enough at school.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →There are one or two relationships where I’d see the red flags much earlier.
Guy Pearce
Australian actor
I wish I could go back and not be the anxious child that I was. I spent the first 25 years of my life just trying to survive human interaction.
Samuel West
British actor, theatre director, and narrator
I’d have done everything earlier and with more style.
More from Patricia Hodge
View profile →Two days ago, at a family wedding, remembering Richard, my cousin. He was 11 months younger than me and we were brought up like brother and sister for the first four years of our lives. He died of a brain tumour when he was 55.
Not having four children.
The Queen. Her like has not been seen before and I doubt it will ever be again.
I wish I could say sorry to my husband, because I couldn’t save him from his dementia.
In the minutes, hours, days and weeks after having my children. I was 42 and 45. There’s nothing like new life.
A ballet dancer, but it changed to being an actress when I got put in a school play.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 219 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 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? 60 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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