A criminal pathologist. Then I saw a show called Quincy ME and realised I just wanted to play one on TV.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
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.
A singer. I wanted to live off music ever since I was a child – a wish that came true when I was over 35 years old.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
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Lucy Worsley
English historian
A spy, a witch and a nun.
Paul O'Grady
British comedian, actor and television presenter
To work in a dry cleaner’s.
Ian Rankin
Scottish crime writer
In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
More from Andrea Bocelli
View profile →The many nuns and priests who often work in the shadows, dedicating their lives to the service of others.
I fear the arrogance we are all at risk of, the pride that pushes us to put “I” in place of “God”. More prosaically, I fear physical pain because it risks stripping us of our dignity.
When each of my three children was born.
Lack of humility, the absence of goodness.
As a young man I had a car accident on a foggy night that left the vehicle looking like a squashed box, even though, by some miracle, I walked away unscathed.
My father, with whom I had a complex relationship: often, when I was young, his desire to protect me clashed with the stubbornness of my choices.
More on identity & self
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Natalie Imbruglia, Joss Stone, Jason Donovan, Sally Lindsay, Lucy Lawless, Giovanna Fletcher
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