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Maybe the night we drove a Hummer in Kabul and went to a cafe that Osama bin Laden supposedly used to frequent.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 April 2021 source ↗
The question
How close have you come to death?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
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Kurt Vonnegut
Novelist and essayist
Fine, thank you. I am quite recovered. It was almost a near-death experience. Things weren't going so well for a little while, but I feel strong again.
Yann Tiersen
Pianist, composer
Yes! With my fiancée about two years ago, we were biking in the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park in California and we were stalked by a mountain lion for hours… It really changed my perception! But you know, they’re peaceful cats, there wasn’t any anger or aggression — that’s just the way it is in nature. It’s good sometimes to realize you can die! The experience made me realize that you have to know where you are, and know that the place you’re in is alive.
Bernadine Evaristo
English author and academic
Travelling Europe with a friend, when I was 29. She was driving and the brakes went, on one of those vertiginous Italian mountains. It was terrifying for the 20 minutes it took to coast down the mountain.
Being offered a lift by James Acaster.
More from Joss Stone
View profile →Having my family in closer proximity, but that’s what comes with living in another country.
In the hospital after my C-section, hanging out with my new baby, feeling very, very happy and grateful.
As somebody who brought joy to people.
A veterinarian, but I decided against it because it required too many years of schooling; I wasn’t great at school.
It’s all a learning experience, even if it’s a shit time.
More on death & what remains
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- What song would you like played at your funeral? 180 answers
- What happens when we die? 57 answers
- What would you like to leave your children? 54 answers
- If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing? 54 answers
- How would you like to die? 46 answers
Also answered this
Gemma Chan, Geoffrey Rush, Bertie Carvel, Emilia Fox, Cynthia Nixon, Orlando Bloom
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