Daphne Guinness
British socialite
I wanted to be in the army or a spy in the intelligence service.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
Failure & regret
Question
Who helps you get things done?
Craft & work
Question
What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?
Values & belief
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
What are you still hoping to finish?
Death & what remains
Question
How do you know when a piece of work is finished?
Craft & work
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Well, my family moved to Alexandria, Virginia from Boise, Idaho when I was in the eighth grade. Pretty soon after that, one night, on the front lawn of my girlfriend’s house, I met a boy named Toby Keeler, who went to a private school. He told me his father was a painter. At first I thought he meant a house painter, but then he said, “No, fine art painter” and a bomb went off in my head. In that millisecond, I only wanted to be a painter.
Hans Ulrich Obrist, AnOther Magazine, 16 January 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Mary McCartney
English photographer and cookbook author
A nurse, because my grandmother was a midwife. I was named after her but never got to meet her.
First loved, then laid, then paid.
A fighter pilot.
More from David Lynch
View profile →But there’s always a way. Sometimes restrictions are a big blessing.
There are so many people I’ve loved working with, but you’ve got to get the right person for the project.
Transcendental Meditation, it’s obviously the most important thing to do day in and day out. Transcending is the key to a better and better life, and this idea is catching on more and more in the world.
Recorded
Asaad Saad, Maharishi University of Management commencement Q&A, TIME, 27 June 2016
source ↗
If I had found something that was better than TM, I’m not stupid, I would have gone and done that. We’re looking for the best thing we can get for ourselves.
Recorded
Etan Ilfeld, The Etan Ilfeld Podcast / Watkins Magazine, Watkins MIND BODY SPIRIT Magazine, 28 January 2025
source ↗
I dream to keep on getting ideas and working.
It just, um, starts feeling correcter and correcter until it's done.
More on identity & self
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