It would be a racist comment.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
When the surgeon told me I wouldn’t be able to play the cello again, in 2013. I have a herniated disc and it’s pressing on a nerve in my neck. I announced I was stopping playing in 2014. I absolutely did not want to stop.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 July 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
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Michael Ball
English singer, presenter and actor
“Unfortunately, Michael, I don’t think you’re ever going to work in the acting profession until you’re about 40, and then it’ll only be in minor character roles.” Drama teacher at Guildford School of Acting.
Some man in the street stopped me and said: “If you were a few inches taller you’d be dangerous.” I’ve no idea what he meant.
“You’re selfish.” It was a friend.
More from Julian Lloyd Webber
View profile →A detective, a train driver on the underground and Leyton Orient’s centre forward.
Our beautiful cat was so ill that we were hours away from having her put down. Somehow, we’ve managed to nurse her back to full health again.
Nothing: the good times, the bad times, they make your character.
My cello. At the time, in 1983, it was £192,500.
When I was 16, I’d just won full scholarships to both the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music, and felt like the world was my oyster.
Seeing Leyton Orient in the premiership.
More on failure & regret
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- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 205 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 39 answers
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