I find it really interesting the way people are drawn to power, usually male power, sometimes in its dark mode. I wonder what they get from it. My experience of bastards is that there is very little material benefit gained from being in their company, though you feel there might be, any minute. Or you get something for a while and then the polarity switches. It’s a huge con. Trump made the mechanism clear – in this, I think he is a timely figure.
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →Narcissism. And people coughing on me in public.
I don’t like it when people manipulate your words, which sometimes happens in the tabloids.
Lack of acceptance of my bad timekeeping
More from Nigel Havers
View profile →Every actor has the same fear – ie, you’re never going to work again.
My first wife, because I left her.
As a perfectly decent bloke.
Not playing James Bond.
That’s the 64-million-dollar question.
The king – because he’s been through quite a bit and I think he’s come out the other side brilliantly.
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