Richard Coles
British musician, writer, presenter and priest
My financial incompetence.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
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.
Moments of vanity, carelessness and unkindness.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 205 →
Tim Minchin
Australian musician, writer, actor and comedian
I’d take back some dumb shit I said when I had no audience and found that being shocking made people laugh.
I would not leave my teenage children to follow an unworthy love. It lasted a month and scarred the family for ever.
kd lang
Canadian musician
When I was working hard, I was going so fast that I didn’t absorb a lot.
More from Rory Stewart
View profile →A painting of a man who was killed on the Dutch coast in 1600.
Being too thin-skinned.
I become very anxious if I think I’ve hurt someone.
On X, I am regularly called a traitor, a fraud, a grifter, a weakling, a narcissist, a coward and a child molester.
Living in a ski resort.
That I am not wise.
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- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 40 answers
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