Philippa Perry
Psychotherapist and author
I’m closer today than I was yesterday.
How close have you come to death?
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
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.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2008 source ↗
Others on this question
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Jake Shears
Singer and songwriter; co-lead vocalist of Scissor Sisters
Five years ago, a concrete plug, a little bigger than a baseball, fell off a building on Hollywood Boulevard when I was riding in an open convertible. It shattered the windshield. It really shook me. I still have it on my mantel.
Kate Nash
British musician
I had heart surgery when I was 17. The other time was when I fell off my piano. My head was an inch away from a metal step.
I was stabbed in my 20s. It was a late-night mugging and, while taking my wallet, they stabbed me in my chest.
More from Robert Carlyle
View profile →Something by Nick Drake.
I'm a great admirer of Tony Benn -he's one of the few politicians who speaks his mind.
On Angela's Ashes, Alan Parker said to me, 'You've got the Bafta, just get in the door.' I was walking along the street to go into a shop and he saw me milking it a bit. It was a really good piece of advice.
Becoming an actor at all, considering my background.
If war stopped.
I'd have concentrated a bit more at school and maybe gone to university rather than drama school.
More on death & what remains
- What would you like to be remembered for? 215 answers
- What song would you like played at your funeral? 178 answers
- If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing? 54 answers
- What happens when we die? 51 answers
- What would you like to leave your children? 45 answers
- How would you like to die? 44 answers
Also answered this
Joss Stone, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Rose McGowan, Julia Ormond, Paul O'Grady, Adeel Akhtar
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