I would say something earnest like stopping the far right, but the truth is nothing keeps me awake at night.
What keeps you awake at night?
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A long-running fixed question in The Guardian's weekly Q&A questionnaire.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
It’s usually a slight feeling that, having got through the day, I didn’t get any time to do any writing or something creative – it was a lot of admin, exhaustion from that and rumination.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 May 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 196 →
Donna Tartt
American novelist and writer
All kinds of ridiculous things, like worrying about the lobsters I see in restaurant tanks in Chinatown.
Sam Neill
New Zealand actor
Worrying about insomnia.
Kathleen Turner
American actress
Anger at people's agenda to control others.
More from Tom Burke
View profile →I’ve not always been great friend material. I’ve tried to get better at that, so to be remembered as reliable by a few would be great.
To be stuck in the past.
You reach a certain point in life and suddenly know a lot of dead people, and I’ve noticed you don’t stop getting to know people who are dead. Those relationships continue and I like that.
Having regrets and not knowing what to do about them.
A movie. Does it have a name? It might do.
Putting chocolate mousse in my agent’s face. Somebody had done it to me – that thing where they go, “Smell this, it smells funny”, and then they put it in your nose. A year later I was in this French restaurant with a very 1980s-style dessert trolley and, before I knew it, I had a bowl of chocolate mousse in front of me. And my agent went, “What’s that smell?”, and it felt impossible not to … I immediately felt awful and tried to apologise. He, of course, said that he found it funny. But I knew he didn’t.
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