RK
My mother. Any child of a single parent, if they are in a relationship when they become a parent, thinks, “How the hell did you do it alone?”
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 August 2017 source ↗
The question
Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 407 →
Patrick Stewart
Actor
Geoffrey's widow, Alma.
Mel Giedroyc
British actress and comedian
Probably my husband. In a world of bullshitters, he steers a tremendously honest course.
Ken Loach
English retired filmmaker
Tony Benn, for moving to the left throughout his life rather than to the right.
Burt Reynolds
American actor
My son Quinton. He’s working behind the scenes in the picture biz and he’s done it all on his own.
More from Rory Kinnear
View profile →I inadvertently rubbed the milky residue of a toxic cactus plant into my eye while filming Women In Love in the desert in Namibia, and my body went into anaphylactic shock as the producer sped me to a clinic 50 miles away.
That will depend on when and how I die, but you couldn’t beat The Birdie Song to set the right tone.
Finding your place.
Last week I saw a moorhen feeding her chicks, and became overwhelmed by the miracle of parenthood and maternal sacrifice. And I hadn’t even been drinking.
As the father of Celtic’s all-time top goalscorer (that’s either of my kids).
Finding cucumber in things is a continual disappointment.
More on values & belief
- What trait do you most dislike in other people? 193 answers
- What does everyone in your world seem to agree on that you think is wrong? 80 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 30 answers
- What belief do you hold that most people around you would reject or find surprising? 19 answers
- What has life taught you about being human? 15 answers
- Which virtue do you think people overrate? 10 answers
Also answered this
Martin Kemp, Anne-Marie Duff, Maxine Peake, Patricia Hodge, Lily Tomlin, Omid Djalili
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All values & belief questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject