Rachel Whiteread: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

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.

Recorded Rachel Whiteread said elsewhere, not written here

First something medical, then, without any doubt, an artist.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 December 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

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Emma Barnett British broadcaster and journalist

A fishmonger, then a surgeon.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 February 2021 source ↗

Carol Vorderman

A fighter pilot.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2026 source ↗

Clive Myrie British journalist, newsreader, and presenter

A tennis player.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 June 2024 source ↗

Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

I know that for a very long time my consuming passion, which was confirmed when I contracted TB — I had TB when I was about 12 or so — was I wanted to be a physician and when I got TB I was even more determined. I want to be physician so that I can find a cure for the scourge. And, in fact, I was admitted to medical school. If we had had the funds maybe today I would have been a physician.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗