The question
Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Gerry Adams, because he’s got incredible integrity and vision, and he’s had to put up with so much flak.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2025 source ↗
I feel almost certain I don't know them. It would be one of these types who dedicate their lives to the welfare of others, whereas the people I tend to know are people making stories out of the dramas of themselves.
Our local doctor.
Victoria Rose, a British surgeon operating on children in Gaza.
Alan Bennett, because he has been such a huge influence on me.
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
I’d have stuck with the original Dexys Midnight Runners look we started in 1978, which became known as the New Romantic look a couple of years later. Our management and record label talked us out of it. Later, Duran Duran and Spandau came out with that look and that made us look old-fashioned.
Insanity. I am on a recovery programme – clean from drugs and drink for many years – and if I stopped doing all that stuff I’d go crazy pretty quick and pick up drugs again, because I was a real fucking addict.
I worked in the stores of Edgware hospital when I was about 17, and it was grey and depressing.
My dad said, “You’re going nowhere.” I was seven or eight.
My brother Pete passing on in 2005.
Olly Alexander, James Bay, Patti Smith, Kylie Minogue, Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Sinéad O'Connor
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