Paul Merson
English footballer and pundit
For me, love is working through things when it’s not going well.
What does love feel like?
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Overwhelming, discombobulating, irrational and unreasonable.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 July 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 218 →
Ann Patchett
American author
Pulling yourself out of a wild ocean and on to a life raft.
Maggie O'Farrell
Irish-British novelist
Effervescence in the soul.
Marina Abramović
Performance artist
Eternal happiness.
More from Ciarán Hinds
View profile →As not being a total bollix.
My penchant for having just one too many.
Hopeful, egalitarian, overweight.
Ulysses by James Joyce, but I might make a start next week – or the week after that …
Falling off the stage and on to the pianist during the opening number in the Mother Goose pantomime at the Citizens theatre in Glasgow.
As a young actor, again at the Citizens theatre, I was making an exit and a theatregoer leaned over the balcony and said, “You’re terrible!”
More on relationships
Also answered this
Marie Kondo, Phoebe Dynevor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Isabel Allende, Stephanie Beacham, Terence Conran
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All relationships questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject