Andrew O’Hagan: As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

The question

As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Andrew O’Hagan

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 197 →

Warwick Davis English actor

I didn’t have a chance to want to be anything – I became an actor at 11.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2017 source ↗

Marc Almond English singer

A vet, but then I discovered you needed qualifications.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗

Alice Munro My favorite writer is Alice Munro—all of her books. She’s a tremendous writer and has taught me so much about writing.

As a child, Munro was constantly telling herself stories. One of the first was “The Little Mermaid,” by Hans Christian Anderson, whose ending she couldn’t bear.

Recorded Andrea Walker, The New Yorker, 4 October 2008 source ↗

Belinda Carlisle American singer

A travel agent, so I could see the world.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2023 source ↗

More from Andrew O’Hagan

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Question How would you describe what love feels like to you? Relationships

Like getting out of the right side of the bed every morning, even when you don’t.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗

Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

My first holy communion, where my trousers were too big for me and fell down, a circumstance which earned me both the instant contempt of the girls and the heightened interest of the priests. That’s just how it was in 1975.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗