After I got arrested, my dad, a lawyer, took me to a QC to try to build a case against the FBI. The dejection on his face when it became obvious that we couldn’t was disappointing.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 May 2018 source ↗
The question
What disappointment has stayed with you longest?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
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Others on this question
View all 367 →The Mona Lisa – I preferred the frame.
Suzanne Vega
American singer-songwriter
How little money really changes things. It buys doctors but not health, clothes but not taste, makeup but not beauty. When I was young and didn’t have anything, I imagined money had more power.
Grace Coddington
Welsh former model and creative director
That one doesn’t stay agile all your life.
Harriet Walter
English actress
When I got to 40 and realised I hadn’t read all the books I needed to read to understand the world.
More from Adeel Akhtar
View profile →At boarding school, I was unable to get the main part in Hamlet, so I put on a production of The Homecoming with my friends. The teachers came to see it and said they didn’t know I had it in me. It felt very good.
I fell off a ladder, landed on my back, got up and was fine.
In Brooklyn, I was a dishwasher in a sandwich shop.
A snazzy coffee machine that grinds beans and steams milk.
My mum, because she smuggled me into the National Youth Theatre during summer time when my dad didn’t want me to be an actor, and she’s seen everything I’ve done.
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