Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
Working in a very busy bar in the West End when I was trying to pay my way through drama school. I had to dance in a cage in a vest and cycling shorts to Venus by Bananarama, Greased Lightnin’ and Y.M.C.A. every night. It was excruciating.
A really bad film for no money: the director had no idea what he was doing and I was wondering: why am I here?
Acting – it’s also the best, though.
Digging holes in Manchester in January.
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.
A pair of Russell & Bromley boots with studs. I have had them for eight years and wear them all the time.
When I met my husband, David, in 2006, on Dating Direct.
Disappear by Beyoncé.
I cried after I won the Booker.
The people I never thanked for what they selflessly gave me in my career; when I was younger I just took it for granted.
Viv Albertine, Siri Hustvedt, Rose Tremain, Greg James, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Cheryl Strayed
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