Margaret Atwood: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Margaret Atwood said elsewhere, not written here

At this age? A batty old lady wandering around talking to herself? But I do that anyway. Oh, you mean what would I have been. Maybe a botanist. If so, I’d be genetically engineering drought-resistant crops right now. Either that, or sentient fungi. (I know, I know, Mr. Sheldrake: they’re already sentient. So, more sentient.)

21 Questions, Penguin Books UK, 15 February 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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Julian Lennon English musician, photographer, and philanthropist

A steam train driver.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 September 2022 source ↗

Martin Sheen American actor

Golfer, priest, police officer, teacher and, after going to the movies, actor.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 March 2017 source ↗

Andrew O'Hagan Scottish author

Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗

Hiroshi Mikitani Founder, chairman and chief executive of Rakuten

My job hunting days were at the height of the bubble economy. At the time, I was focused on joining big corporations and had no intention of myself becoming an entrepreneur. I started working at a major bank with a vague idea that I wanted "a job that would take me around the world."

Recorded Rakuten Group, Inc. source ↗

More from Margaret Atwood

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Question How would you describe yourself in three words? Identity & self

Lazy, anxious, and distracted.

Recorded Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 September 2006 source ↗

Question Which book changed the way you think, and what did it change? Taste & recommendation

At what age? It’s been a long path. I’ll stick with Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. (“Someday I’d like to try a book like that,” I said to myself, “only with a female narrator. It would of course be quite different.”)

Recorded 21 Questions, Penguin Books UK, 15 February 2022 source ↗