The question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?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.
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.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2016 source ↗
Desmond Tutu. If there is a God, He must find his Cape Town archbishop a big relief from the humourlessness of pontificating prelates.
My brother, Michael. He is an academic and has devoted his life to scholarship; my life seems trivial by comparison. Bastard.
My wife. She is the most beautiful person I know in every way and has an endless energy for other people that a vinegary old misanthrope like myself can only marvel at.
Geoffrey's widow, Alma.
Oblivious to the event or on the brink of a genuine religious conversion.
Reading quietly, in high grass, among loved ones (who are also quietly reading). Followed by a boozy lunch.
Violent death. Death generally.
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
Narcissism, solipsism.
Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
Hayley Squires, Ethan Hawke, Meera Syal, Maggie O'Farrell, Judith Kerr, Anne Enright
Search the directory for somebody in particular.