Harlan Coben
American author
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but if I could go back and fix the mistake, I wouldn’t be here.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
My password. [In 2014, Brown Findlay’s iCloud account was hacked.]
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Sandi Toksvig
Danish and British broadcaster, comedian and writer
I wouldn’t bother learning how to use logarithms, and I might give netball a miss.
Burt Reynolds
American actor
I wouldn’t have done the naked centrefold in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1972.
Rita Ora
British singer-songwriter
That I didn’t think I knew everything.
More from Jessica Brown Findlay
View profile →I used to do silver service waitressing at parties and events. The job was great, but there was constant harassment and groping from older men, and I hadn’t found my voice yet. It’s terrifying when you are young and you need a job.
Spending over half my life under Tory rule.
My wedding day last year. It was supposed to be 4 April and, in the end, it was 12 September.
My younger self: I had no love for her and I was cruel and she never deserved it.
The thought of infinity.
During lockdown, I found out I wasn’t pregnant any more.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 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
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