“Your lyrics are rubbish.” It was someone I was working with when I was in my early 20s. It turned out well because I then spent a long time studying and learning how to write good lyrics.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
'Excuse me, madam, you have a thong hanging out of your handbag.'
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2008 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →People have said, “I wish you would die.” That’s the stark truth of being in the public eye – people dehumanise you and say ghastly things.
Charles Dance
British actor
“You can’t play Maxim de Winter with ginger hair.”
“What is Seann Walsh and how do we make it die?” It was online, thankfully. It wasn’t in Sainsbury’s.
More from Erin O'Connor
View profile →The bits that consumed me with guilt.
Appearing on a Paris catwalk in a beard.
An emergency landing in a snow storm in Philadelphia.
A chef would be nice.
Learning to surf - a 6ft frame is a real hindrance for the sport.
Not becoming a ballerina.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Mariella Frostrup, Richard Coles, Jared Harris, Roger McGough, Lucy Beaumont, Indira Varma
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