Michael Kiwanuka
English singer-songwriter
Nothing. Everything happens for a reason.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
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How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I would build relationships. I would remember people’s significant moments. I would not fear closeness.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 205 →
Gareth Bale
Welsh footballer
Nothing. Without my past I wouldn’t be who I am today.
Florence Welch
British singer
Perhaps a few drunken incidents – but I’ll keep the coat.
Ian McEwan
British novelist and screenwriter
To have grown up with my siblings. They were at least 10 years older than me.
More from Lemn Sissay
View profile →The Prince and Princess of Wales for not knowing when to leave their home.
When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”
Believing in, even admiring, people who refuse to believe in me, and not believing people who do.
I made a suicide attempt at 12 or 13 years old.
That I can’t write.
I spent my life searching for family. I travelled around the world to look each one of them in the eye. Unfortunately, but understandably, for most of them, I am their biggest disappointment.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 369 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 39 answers
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