In their fifties

The densest band in the archive, and the age at which the question about what everyone in your field gets wrong tends to get its bluntest answer.

45 people · 1,452 answers

What worries you about getting older?

Originally asked

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

A newer fixed question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A pool.

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

Mario Molina

Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1996

Certainly not. As a young child, I remember just dreaming about the Nobel Prize, but that was just a dream. It’s not something I would have ever thought was possible for me.
Lucy Lawless

Recorded · The Guardian · 2025

I don’t want to get into an early death spiral, when you’re scaling down your life unnecessarily because you’ve already been there or done that. I never want to stop adventuring.
Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964

Recorded · Winston S. Churchill, Painting as a Pastime, Project Gutenberg Canada · 1932

One by one the more vigorous sports and exacting games fall away. Exceptional exertions are purchased only by a more pronounced and more prolonged fatigue.
All 14 from in their fifties → or everyone who answered it

What trait do you most dislike in other people?

Originally asked

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

A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.

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

Julian Lennon

English musician, photographer, and philanthropist

Recorded · The Guardian · 2022

Ghosting, where you are mid-conversation with someone and they disappear off the face of the planet.
All 28 from in their fifties → or everyone who answered it

What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

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

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Stephen K Amos

Recorded · The Guardian · 2025

“Do you know what your problem is?” It was a dear friend of mine. They were referring to the fact that I’m impatient.
Sarah Hadland

Recorded · The Guardian · 2025

“You’ll never, ever work.” When you are young and full of hopes and dreams it’s devastating. I am just grateful that I thought: “Well, I’m going to try.”
Michelle Visage

Recorded · The Guardian · 2024

I’ve heard it all: too fat, too short, no talent. Those are the things that cut me deep when I was younger, but now they drive me.
Sharon Corr

Musical artist

Recorded · The Guardian · 2023

I can’t disclose that because it’s not suitable for public airing, but it was truly awful; they’ve since said worse.
Edward Enninful

Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist

Recorded · The Guardian · 2022

Any time I’ve been racially profiled. The words might be different, but the feeling is the same.
All 31 from in their fifties → or everyone who answered it

Everyone here · A–Z

Alison Moyet, Andrew O’Hagan, Barack Obama, Bear Grylls, Billy Crudup, Bryn Terfel, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Cybill Shepherd, Daphne Guinness, David Guetta, David Hasselhoff, Dervla Kirwan, Ed Harris, Gregory Porter, Indira Varma, Jack Davenport, Jason Donovan, Kate Humble, Lemn Sissay, Maggie O'Farrell, Marcus Brigstocke, Mario Molina, Mark Bonnar, Mellody Hobson, Michelle Visage, Monica Dolan, Naga Munchetty, Natalie Imbruglia, Neil Gaiman, Nick Frost, Nuala McGovern, Penny Lancaster, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Feynman, Rory Stewart, Sarah Hadland, Sharleen Spiteri, Shinya Yamanaka, Shirley Manson, Shobna Gulati, Sofia Coppola, Stephen K Amos, Steve Jobs, Suzanne Vega, Winston Churchill

Other ages

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