GN
I was an air display pilot for 15 years, and watched most of my friends die in crashes. When the children came along, I got out of it.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 July 2017 source ↗
The question
How close have you come to dying?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
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Others on this question
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Yann Tiersen
Pianist, composer
Yes! With my fiancée about two years ago, we were biking in the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park in California and we were stalked by a mountain lion for hours… It really changed my perception! But you know, they’re peaceful cats, there wasn’t any anger or aggression — that’s just the way it is in nature. It’s good sometimes to realize you can die! The experience made me realize that you have to know where you are, and know that the place you’re in is alive.
Carlos Acosta
Cuban ballet dancer
In 1989, in Cuba, about to board a plane for Milan, where I was going to school for a year. The visa didn’t arrive in time, so I couldn’t board. The plane crashed and people died.
Eleanor Tomlinson
English actress
A horse-riding accident when I was about 15.
Throat and neck cancer in 2018. They told me six to eight months if it hadn’t been caught.
More from Gary Numan
View profile →Yesterday, when Gemma, my wife, played me The End Of Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh when we were driving into Hollywood.
Not one of mine.
Now. I enjoy what I do for a living, the children are here and I am still happily married after 25 years.
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