Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Don’t answer every question you’re asked.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 141 →
Harlan Coben
American author
We are too often advised to live life to the fullest. That’s too much pressure. The key is to find joy and poignancy in the quiet and mundane. Life is lived between the so-called big moments.
Bruno Tonioli
Italian choreographer
Follow your dream and never give up, because it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Ride the adventure!
Kevin Rowland
British singer
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
More from Stockard Channing
View profile →“Let’s face it, you’re not Ingrid Bergman.” I was 19 and he was a potential boyfriend. My only thought at the time was: “I’m not?”
Not keeping off the last 5lbs.
A dress designer.
Fifteen years ago, I totally forgot my lines on stage and was mortified. We skipped two pages of dialogue and took three minutes off the play – to the delight of the audience!
At the election of Joe Biden, thinking we were out of the woods. Wrong.
Climate change.
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