Meg Rosoff
American novelist
My husband is the kindest, funniest, most strange and wondrous person I know.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Gerry Adams, because he’s got incredible integrity and vision, and he’s had to put up with so much flak.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Marianne Faithfull
English singer and actress
Right now, PJ Harvey.
Joseph Fiennes
English actor
Aung San Suu Kyi: an extraordinary humanitarian fighting for democracy in a Burmese dictatorship.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Neil Young. Not in that order.
More from Kevin Rowland
View profile →My dad said, “You’re going nowhere.” I was seven or eight.
On stage – the Old Vic in 1981 and Glastonbury last year.
I worked in the stores of Edgware hospital when I was about 17, and it was grey and depressing.
My brother Pete passing on in 2005.
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
The contentment I have now.
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Robbie Williams, Shirley Manson, Lisa Marie Presley, Julian Lennon, Joan Jett, George Michael
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