Absolutely nothing. It’s a privilege.
What scares you about getting older?
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A newer fixed question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Learning lines.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 February 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 61 →Not knowing who my family are.
Neil Gaiman
Author of fiction, comics and screenplays
Mostly the pain. I don’t want to be trapped in a body that hurts.
Maurice Sendak
Children's author and illustrator
I cry a lot because I miss people. I cry a lot because they die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more. ... And so it's what I dread more than anything is the isolation.
Recorded
Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR — recorded by telephone in September 2011, his last interview, 20 September 2011
source ↗
More from Matthew Kelly
View profile →Friendly, opinionated, hilarious.
My parents, because I rather slipped from their standards on more than one occasion. And when they got older, I wish I’d been kinder and more tolerant with them.
Insurance – it’s such a scam.
Fifty per cent of the books on my shelf, so much so that I gave them away.
Removal of fear and anxiety.
Not being able to work.
More on time & hindsight
- When were you happiest? 577 answers
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 137 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- 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
Also answered this
Milton Jones, George H. W. Bush, Peter Sarsgaard, Juliet Stevenson, Marina Abramović, Terry Pratchett
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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