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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A dress designer.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 August 2026 source ↗
I wanted to be like Vidal Sassoon and wear the three-piece suit and be part of pop culture.
Not a child, which was short-sighted of me.
An astronaut, a writer, a dancer.
I always wanted to play tennis. Otherwise, I always thought it would be fun to do something in mathematics or physics.
Fifteen years ago, I totally forgot my lines on stage and was mortified. We skipped two pages of dialogue and took three minutes off the play – to the delight of the audience!
Climate change.
Not keeping off the last 5lbs.
“Let’s face it, you’re not Ingrid Bergman.” I was 19 and he was a potential boyfriend. My only thought at the time was: “I’m not?”
At the election of Joe Biden, thinking we were out of the woods. Wrong.
Don’t answer every question you’re asked.
Dominic West, Father John Misty, Riz Ahmed, Edward Fox, Emma Barnett, Rachel Whiteread
Search the directory for somebody in particular.