Edward Fox
British actor
To be able to play the piano like Artur Schnabel.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
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 detective. Or a writer. Or a poet.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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Desmond Tutu
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
I know that for a very long time my consuming passion, which was confirmed when I contracted TB — I had TB when I was about 12 or so — was I wanted to be a physician and when I got TB I was even more determined. I want to be physician so that I can find a cure for the scourge. And, in fact, I was admitted to medical school. If we had had the funds maybe today I would have been a physician.
Victoria Pendleton
British cyclist
A vet, but I wasn’t smart enough.
Belinda Carlisle
American singer
A travel agent, so I could see the world.
More from Frank Bowling
View profile →Recently, as people began to understand what I am trying to do in my painting.
I hope I’ll find my mother and father in heaven. Only my father would probably say, “You can’t come and live here, boy!”
Trying to exercise authority over one.
In 2001, when my eldest son died.
Picking up RAF pilots’ parachute packs and gear they dropped off in a pile.
As a nice old man.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Kevin Pietersen, Imogen Poots, Rosalind Eleazar, Mark Radcliffe, Kim Wilde, Chris Bonington
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