Life is not worth living if there is no one you would die for.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
You can only do one thing at a time.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 137 →Keep working, improving your step.
That further lessons await.
To tell the truth.
More from Alex Lawther
View profile →I spent about five years living in Paris thinking I would become Kristin Scott Thomas, and it didn’t happen.
My partner was doing a play in Hong Kong last year and I went to visit him, and I bought him a beautiful teacup. But I didn’t look at the price tag before I took it to the till and it was £100, the most expensive teacup imaginable.
I would try and get to being comfortable with myself quicker.
My failed driving test a few months ago. I got three majors and by the end of it the examiner couldn’t wait to get out of the car.
I woke up this morning thinking maybe I don’t want to be an actor any more, then I had breakfast and I thought: actually, no, I really like being an actor.
Ponderous, over thinking.
More on time & hindsight
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- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
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- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject