One question · 6 of 39 answers to it
Originally asked
The American Academy of Achievement, to its honourees, its oral-history interviews
The Academy of Achievement repeatedly asks honorees to identify a major professional obstacle or challenge and describe confronting it.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Experimental physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 2022
The hard part was getting around this, this was a religion among physicists, and in fact even in the Bohr-Einstein debates, and with Schrödinger also, the universal religion was quantum…
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2022
Founder and executive chairperson of Biocon
I faced a number of credibility hurdles linked to gender, youth and the nature of my business venture.
Recorded · MyIndMakers · 2016
Actor
I realized that the biggest obstacle was my mind. It was the biggest obstacle, and if I could get out of the way of myself, I would grow.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2006
Film director, screenwriter and painter
The studios are superreluctant to give final cut. They have so much money riding on these things, so they want a committee to go and rule the roost.
Recorded · Interview Magazine · 2012
Radio astronomer; discoverer of pulsars
Tony was cautious. He suspected I’d wired the radio telescope up wrong. So we checked on another radio telescope on the site.
Recorded · University of Cambridge · 2020
Filmmaker, Educator, and DJ
I tried to get funding to shoot this film and couldn’t—nobody wanted to touch it, you know?
Recorded · Filmmaker Magazine · 2021
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
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.
British professional tennis player, 2005–2024
Driving home on my own, thinking about the last 18 months, which have been really difficult, and getting back to playing tennis again without any pain in my hip. It was happy crying.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2019
Comedian and writer
I cry a lot. Especially on planes. What is that about? On a plane, I’ll be in floods at The Good Dinosaur.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
English actor
I lost my poodle, Mighty. He was out of my sight for just seven minutes; he went out on an adventure and didn’t come back, and was taken by a coyote, I think.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2021
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I worked with Stephen Fry recently and we had a real heart-to-heart. I asked: “What was it like being in prison for being gay?” And thank God someone came in and he didn’t hear me say it.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
Being an actor is inherently embarrassing. You have to embrace it.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
English actor
Being torn to shreds by a very elderly woman for driving badly on the Isle of Man, maybe 15 years ago. She stopped in the middle of the road and really let me have it.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
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.
To my cousin P, who was one of my best mates growing up. We lost him when we were in our 20s and, before he passed away, I was so busy with this stupid thing called life and a brand new kid.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
All the kids I didn’t reply to who’ve written lovely letters about my books.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter
I’ve made some terrible remarks about people over the years in the interests of light entertainment, and I regret them all.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2022
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Abby Wambach, Allyson Felix, Amy Tan, Andrea Martin, Andrea Riseborough, Bernadette Peters, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Chris Froome, Cuba Gooding Jr, Eric Lander, Ernest Borgnine, Ernest J. Gaines, Esther Rantzen, Eugene Levy, Frederick Sanger, Gina Lollobrigida, Gok Wan, Jacob Collier, Jessica Mauboy, John Waters, Jorge Drexler, Kate Mosse, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Lisa Marie Presley, Marina Diamandis, Michael Douglas, Michael Sheen, Mike Krzyzewski, Naomi Osaka, Patricia Smith, Paul O'Grady, Rory Kinnear, Shakin' Stevens, Shinya Yamanaka, Sonia Sotomayor, Steve Pemberton, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Tao Lin, Ursula K. Le Guin, Walton Goggins
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.