I worked in a cafe, which I loved, but when it was quiet we had to scrape the fat out from between the tiles on the floor with a butter knife.
What is the worst job you have done?
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The worst was as a butcher, aged 17.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2008 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 229 →
Brendan Gleeson
Irish actor and director
Fixing a municipal sewer pipe.
I was a waitress at a holiday camp. On a Wednesday afternoon all the guys used to pee into the rice pudding and we had to serve it to the customers.
Joseph Fiennes
English actor
Several: cutting the local vicar's lawn, shovelling shit from a stable, waiting tables, picking up and washing actors' smelly pants and socks.
More from Robert Carlyle
View profile →If war stopped.
Losing my family in some way.
I was on a plane in India and I thought it was going to crash. It was an old, rickety thing. It was pre-children - I wouldn't do it now.
I'm a great admirer of Tony Benn -he's one of the few politicians who speaks his mind.
Becoming an actor at all, considering my background.
To stand up tall and aim for what you want.
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- How does a new work begin for you? 63 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you do? 46 answers
- What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job? 41 answers
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