Persevering with a career that was predicted to last six months and still being here four decades later.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
One question · 6 of 206 answers to it
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
British writer
My children. My marriage. All those books.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2020
British actress
My one-woman show playing Emily Dickinson: two hours by myself on stage and over 50 performances. I’m really happy I had the guts to do that.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2015
Scottish novelist
I haven’t achieved anything of note yet.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2016
English radio presenter and author
I was the subject of a Celeb cartoon in Private Eye. I’ve a copy hanging in the downstairs toilet.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2020
Getting to 39 without having a filling in my teeth.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
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.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
President of Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009–2023; chairman from 2023
While many people are content with their current job, I’m sure some do not feel that way. Yet all of it has meaning. No experience is pointless—what you take out of it is up to you.
Recorded · Toyota Times · 2024
American filmmaker and actress
To follow your path and not worry about what to do too much; one thing leads to the next, and you wind up where you’re meant to be.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2023
English television presenter
Not everything happens for a reason. Sometimes life just sucks.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2011
What role should instinct play in major decisions?
Originally asked
The American Academy of Achievement, to its honourees, its oral-history interviews
Near-verbatim recurring Academy prompt about judgment under pressure.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
President of Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009–2023; chairman from 2023
Being part of a company means following certain rules. But when it comes to the question of what to do, ask your heart.
Recorded · Toyota Times · 2024
Film director and screenwriter
No. You don't have to have rules. If you have rules—you know in cinema you have to be very pragmatic.
Recorded · GrouchoReviews · 2006
Commissioner of the National Football League, 1960–1989
I think to a certain respect, yes. But also, you try to follow the best guidelines you have, the constitutional by-laws.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
English actress and singer
A family of my own, I guess, though it terrifies me.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2012
Irish actor and comedian
On an iPhone, why can’t you close all open apps at once, rather than flicking through them all?
Recorded · The Guardian · 2015
English actor, comedian, broadcaster and singer
I am going a bit deaf and I am hoping that technology is going to come on leaps and bounds and that one day I will hear better.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1211
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 47
- Sport 109
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
- Values & belief 13
- Change of mind 1
- Failure & regret 9
- Craft & work 36
- Money & investment 4
- Taste & recommendation 6
- Relationships 5
- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →Andrew W.K., Anna Dorn, Ariel Rubinstein, Arlo Parks, Aziz Sancar, Beth Breeze, Cecile Richards, Claudio Miranda, Danielle Steel, Donald Sutherland, Frank Bowling, Fran Lebowitz, Gavin Rossdale, Gayle King, Harrison Ford, Harry Redknapp, Harry Sidebottom, Howard Marks, Jack Dee, James Norton, Jim Kerr, Joanna Scanlan, John Clauser, Judy Blume, Lionel Shriver, Mary McCartney, Paterson Joseph, Robert Bathurst, Roger Moore, Russell Mael, Sam Amidon, Sarah Paulson, Scott Simon, Simon Boas, Stephen Dillane, Taja Cheek, Tasuku Honjo, Tim Harford, Tina Fey, Tom Wolfe
Answers that stay at one address
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.
- People
- 1,679
- Answers
- 8,216
- Questions
- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
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.