Fran Lebowitz
American author and public speaker
The moment I realised I knew how to read. I was five.
When were you happiest?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
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.
People are often traumatised by the sleeplessness in the first years of their children’s lives, but I was insanely happy to be married and have two children. The only dark cloud was how much we were loathed for having babies who slept through the night.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 April 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →More from Olivia Williams
View profile →All the things I ought to have done.
An electric car.
My mother says I had a plan to be a farmer’s wife and a violinist, going to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in my tractor.
Undiagnosed VIPoma in 2018.
In rehearsals. The play is very funny about mothers and daughters, but one of the gags hit a raw nerve.
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
Greta Scacchi, Gina McKee, Josette Simon, Hugh Dennis, Joanna Scanlan, Isla Fisher
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