Nadine Gordimer
South African writer
Camping in the bushveld with my man.
When were you happiest?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Recently, as people began to understand what I am trying to do in my painting.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →I’m the happiest right now. I can see that I’m in a kind of sweet spot: my parents are alive, my kids are little, my wife is hot and my body doesn’t hurt.
Marina Abramović
Performance artist
Whenever I finish good work.
Matt Goss
English singer-songwriter
At 37 Crawford Road in Camberwell, London. My mother had separated from my father and we had nothing, but I remember roast potatoes, twopence in the gas meter and music. It was the only time in my life when I felt at home.
More from Frank Bowling
View profile →Trying to exercise authority over one.
Being able to paint the way I do.
A detective. Or a writer. Or a poet.
Keep working, improving your step.
My work. What shape will it take?
In the 1950s I went to the Chelsea Arts Club’s New Year’s Eve ball at the Royal Albert Hall dressed as a Christmas pudding, with swimming trunks under my costume and holly in my hair.
More on time & hindsight
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 137 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Keith Richards, Kevin Pietersen, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Shobna Gulati, Bradley Wiggins
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject