I wanted to play for Tottenham.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 source ↗
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.
I wanted to play for Tottenham.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 source ↗
Anything and everything. I watched the Olympics and wanted to be an 800m runner. If I watched Inspector Morse, I wanted to be a pathologist.
A radio journalist or on the till at Marks & Spencer.
I wanted to be a vet, and then realised it’s only really dogs that I adore, and if someone had a poorly mouse, I would be the one needing medical assistance.
Many things. I remember wanting to be a vet, a ballet dancer and a hairdresser.
As a nice guy, but I’m not sure that is going to happen.
When Molde won the Norwegian premier league in 2011, the year the club was 100 years old.
Rock climbing in Oslo. During abseiling, I hadn’t tied a knot at the end of the rope and almost slid out. I saw the end of the rope at the last second, so I stopped abseiling.
The world doesn’t consist of bad and good people; it consists of people seeing things in a different way.
Exultation, fear, quiet comfort and even hate.
Tottenham this season.
Armistead Maupin, Richard Coles, Hayley Squires, Andrew O'Hagan, Joanna Scanlan, Sue Perkins
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