Any unread book a friend bought me.
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Ulysses – I’ve tried many times and never got through it.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 June 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 32 →To Kill a Mockingbird.
Anything by Dostoevsky. I tried!
The Great Gatsby.
More from Toby Stephens
View profile →Never ever think that things are going to turn out all right.
I cry all the time. It’s embarrassing. I mostly cry when my children perform something at school. My wife regularly says, “Do you see any other fathers weeping?” But I can’t stop myself.
A review of Phèdre said – because I was quite large at the time – Toby Stephens’s Hippolytus needs to get on a StairMaster.
There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.
I was in a restaurant with my daughter in Los Angeles and I had an accident involving a stomach upset. That was mortifying for both of us.
To be completely alone.
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