For a hospital corridor, or a house that has to be cleared, or a morning after being told something about your own body that you cannot un-know. A good part of what is here was written by people under a diagnosis of their own, who knew the answer applied to them within months — which is not a vantage anybody can be asked to take up on request.
120 people · 283 answers
Professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design
This is obviously not how I wanted things to turn out, but my wife and I have no regrets; we did everything I could to maximize my odds.
Recorded · Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science · 2007
Political strategist and pollster; architect of New Labour
I live by the day. Just sitting in the park, looking at the flowers thinking how beautiful they are. It's almost … not hallucinogenic but it's a much stronger feeling than previously.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2011
Songwriter and musician
I just thought right away that I wanted to work. ... This is a good job. It's been a good job. Work is the most effective drug there can possibly be. ...
Recorded · The New York Times Magazine · 2003
Neurosurgeon and writer
what’s the difference? If I die in two years’ time, what will I do between now and then which I don’t want to do now?
Recorded · The Guardian · 2022
Critic, essayist, poet and broadcaster
Yeah. These books are all around me and they'll be here when I go and I'm that sick. I just don't know when it ends.
Recorded · ABC News · 2015
Neurosurgeon and writer
I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed both nothing and everything.
Recorded · The New York Times · 2014
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
When the media, en masse, reported my imminent demise.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
I lived in New York during 9/11 and worked a couple of blocks away from the twin towers.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
When I had cancer. I was having a shave and thought: “Are you meant to have a big hard lump on one side of your neck?”
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Poet and essayist
None of this was supposed to happen. At 38, I wasn’t supposed to lie on my back in the E.R.
Recorded · The New York Times · 2016
Spiritual teacher and author
I was close to death, and I didn't rush into my spirit. I spent the time in the hospital just looking at the pipes on the ceiling. ...
Recorded · The Believer · 2017
Novelist and screenwriter
How many times I could have died before now, and in how many different ways.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Originally asked
The Talks, to its interviewees, its interview series
The Talks asks this directly or through an equivalent risk-and-mortality formulation across interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975
At first I - I felt that it was confined to my liver and that they had - the operation had completely removed it. And so I felt quite relieved.
Recorded · CNN · 2015
Editor and memoirist
These matters have become discussable with one’s friends, not, of course, as a frequent part of gossip over lunch in the dining room (our only communal occasion) but from time to time,…
Recorded · The Guardian · 2014
Songwriter and musician
Somebody who won't go to the doctor for a normal checkup is fearful and nervous. ... But once you find out what it's like on the other side, you can go beyond fear.
Recorded · The New York Times Magazine · 2003
Rock climber; first person to free solo El Capitan
I’ve had a couple of ex-girlfriends sort of accuse me of having a personality disorder! … No, I don’t know. I’ve always been afraid of death. I’ve never wanted to die.
Recorded · The Talks · 2019
Political strategist and pollster; architect of New Labour
From the moment I resolved and reconciled things with Gail the fear went. I don't feel I've got any fear now. I think acceptance is the key. If you accept death, fear disappears.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2011
Neurologist and writer
I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude.
Recorded · The New York Times · 2015
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
A fixed final question in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire, repeated verbatim across respondent pages.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Theatre and film director
When I am ready. When I have had enough. When I can no longer give anything. When I can no longer appreciate the small beauties. Without pain or remorse.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2022
Actor
At the right time, and like my father—utterly without fear or pain, at home, with all whom I love. It was his last lesson as a parent to me.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2020
Actor
How doesn’t matter—it’s when that matters. When I’m ready!
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2014
Novelist and screenwriter
As far as I can tell, I’ll either succumb to some opportunistic infection, for which I’ve refused antibiotics in advance, or, having similarly declined forced feeding, I’ll starve to death.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
Actor and director
Like? I have no soft spot, fondness, admiration, respect, attraction, or esteem for death. I am not taken with it or infatuated by it.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2014
Broadcaster
I’d like to die anytime after the age of 90—in my sleep!
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2016
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring late-stage question in The Guardian Q&A, with materially different answers on publisher-hosted pages.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Massive DMT release, your perception of time dilates, you realise you can fly, then it all goes black, and you start again, only this time … you’re a slug.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
I think we’re definitely gone, but I do think people leave traces everywhere from what they did in life, and live on and continue to make an impact through the ripple effect of that.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
I don’t know, and I’m completely OK with not knowing.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Earthly life is merely the infancy of our soul. What comes after physical death is, I imagine, like returning home.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
When my kids ask, “What happens when we die?” I say, “Do you remember the place you were in before you were born? I think we go back there.”
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
I like to think that my friends, my auntie and my mum are up there having a big party and that I could join them.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A sense of what’s right, a few quid and some nice paintings.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
A strong work ethic and enough wealth not to need it.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Good memories. When I’m gone, I want them to feel that they were always my No 1 priority.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
Exactly what my parents left me: the knowledge of the difference between good and bad and right and wrong. Everything else is entirely up to them.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2023
Compassion, resourcefulness and resilience form a rounded good person. So that’s what I’d like to leave my children and grandchildren.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
The wisdom to become who they are in the truth of their spirit.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
Originally asked
Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions
A recurring legacy prompt in Vogue's 73 Questions, appearing with only minor wording changes.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
As someone who added to a situation rather than took away from it.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
As a man who tried his best to entertain.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Jazz tenor saxophonist and composer
I hope so, yes! The thing is that my spiritual leanings don’t accept what we would call life and death… We don’t believe in that. There is no end! There is no dying. We’re here forever!
Recorded · The Talks · 2021
Aid worker; executive director of Jersey Overseas Aid
All our lives are little books - but they're not someone else's complete book.
Recorded · BBC News · 2024
To have made people healthier and happier.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
By people smiling or shaking their heads. I’ll even take rolling their eyes.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
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