Julia Stiles
American actress
I’d have been less precocious as a child (you grow up fast in New York). I’d have prolonged the naivety.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your greatest fear?
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.
I’d be happier being myself younger.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 204 →The years of self-doubt.
Helen George
English actress
Going through a divorce.
Simone Biles
United States artistic gymnast
Nothing. Everything has led me to who and where I am now.
More from Hugh Skinner
View profile →Snobbishness, superiority, condescension.
Catastrophising.
People singing in the street.
In the back of my mind I just assumed I’d be in a boyband at some point.
I think we’re definitely gone, but I do think people leave traces everywhere from what they did in life, and live on and continue to make an impact through the ripple effect of that.
Pigeons. One got stuck in my flat once for quite a long time and it really changed how I feel about them.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 123 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 71 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 37 answers
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Ann Dowd, Mandy Patinkin, Suzanne Vega, Mark Gatiss, Romola Garai, Emma Bunton
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