Jonathan Safran Foer
American novelist
Growing older so quickly.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
In my professional life, the musical Chess on Broadway. It was a resounding fiasco and played for two months. The butcher of Broadway, Frank Rich of the New York Times, was probably very pleased: I’ve never seen such a bad review in my life.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2020 source ↗
Others on this question
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Mo Gilligan
British comedian
Not investing in bitcoin.
Not being a scratch golfer.
I spent my life searching for family. I travelled around the world to look each one of them in the eye. Unfortunately, but understandably, for most of them, I am their biggest disappointment.
More from Björn Ulvaeus
View profile →Nothing, really. But without little sleeping pills, I’d go crazy.
My surname. You have no idea how many versions I’ve read and heard. It was especially irritating during my Abba years. You can imagine someone calling our hotel and saying: “I’d like to speak to one of the guys in Abba.” Who do you think the receptionist called, Andersson or Ulvaeus?
It’s a calm and secure feeling of deep loyalty.
A cabaret act with Agnetha, Frida and Benny. It was in a nightclub in Gothenburg and one night we had seven in the audience. It was before we found out that we were a pop group.
Successful like my two uncles, who were paper industry magnates.
Bill Gates. Not only did he build Microsoft, he went on with his wife to create the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They support the, in my view, single most important factor in making the world a better place – empowerment of women and girls.
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- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Viv Albertine, Richard Hawley, Dan Aykroyd, Bryan Ferry, Rufus Wainwright, Adam Lambert
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