Alain de Botton: What keeps you awake at night?

Originally asked

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

A long-running fixed question in The Guardian's weekly Q&A questionnaire.

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

Recorded Alain de Botton said elsewhere, not written here

failure. I dream of chapters I haven't written and things that I forgot to say in books I wrote three or seven years ago.

Charlotte Philby, My secret life, The Independent, 1 May 2009 source ↗

Others on this question

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Cybill Shepherd American actress and former model

Worrying about my children.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2008 source ↗

Laurence Fox English actor and activist

Worry about being self-employed. Nowadays, I don’t lose sleep over my divorce – I did for about a year.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 December 2019 source ↗

Aaron Ciechanover Biologist and physician; Nobel laureate in chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

what I'm really worried about and concerned is the lack of the voice of the leadership.

Recorded Moderator Karl Skorecki, Public conversation at Technion University, The Rabbi Sacks Legacy, 12 June 2018 source ↗

Joan Collins English actress and writer

Worrying about my children.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2014 source ↗

More from Alain de Botton

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Question When was the last time you changed your mind about something? Change of mind

I believed that the real challenge in love was finding ‘the right one’. I now realise that it’s not a case of finding the right one, so much as learning to love rightly.

Recorded John Purcell, Ten Terrifying Questions, The Booktopian, 6 February 2012 source ↗

Question What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? Time & hindsight

Be ambitious beyond merely dreaming of the first book being published. Already now try to imagine where you want this to go, where you want to be at 60.

Recorded John Purcell, Ten Terrifying Questions, The Booktopian, 6 February 2012 source ↗

Question Which teacher, parent, coach or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them? Relationships

I came from a family where books were highly valued, and that set me on the path of reading. Also, my family got out there and did stuff, and so I grew up feeling that you could change things and get things done if you worked hard.

Recorded John Purcell, Ten Terrifying Questions, The Booktopian, 6 February 2012 source ↗