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In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 October 2020 source ↗
The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
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Others on this question
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Samuel West
British actor, theatre director, and narrator
A DJ. I still do.
Mario Molina
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
For me, it was just a thrill. I just remember thinking at that time, this is the sort of thing I would like to do, if I could. I did not come from a family of scientists. My father was a lawyer, my older brother was a lawyer.
Mellody Hobson
Co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments
And all the while I was growing up, of course, there were just constant conversations about money and money being tight and how are we going to make ends meet and sometimes not having enough money. And it really just made me committed to living a life with much more financial security.
Jessica Raine
British actress
I was fidgety and clueless for a long time.
More from Ian Rankin
View profile →I’d give myself some fashion sense.
There wasn’t a lot of bullying at my school, but there was a fair amount of ragging – and I knew which side I wanted to be on. I’d say sorry to anyone who felt picked on.
Fondly and down the centuries. I think partly what drives writers to write is the yearning for immortality.
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