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.
Composer, pirate, scientist, philosopher.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 July 2026 source ↗
Professional footballer for Tottenham, or train driver.
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.
I wanted to be a prosthetic makeup artist after watching A Nightmare On Elm Street.
I wanted my own ice-cream van and to be a lollipop lady.
The wisdom to become who they are in the truth of their spirit.
We don’t die. We change realms. Life is eternal. Living is not. Live while you are alive.
Not being there for my daughter.
Evolve or perish.
A Dalí painting.
“You don’t stand a chance of succeeding as a writer in this country. The demographics are against you.” They were wrong. The only demographic that counts is the human heart.
Aidan Gillen, Andrew O’Hagan, Clive Myrie, Adrian Edmondson, Paul Whitehouse, Desmond Tutu
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