A writer. Always.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 April 2017 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 197 →
Melissa McCarthy
American actress
I wanted to make women’s clothing. I also said that I wanted to be an artist; I don’t think I ever said I wanted to be an actress, but I remember thinking that would be fun.
Yogi Berra
Baseball catcher and manager; ten-time World Series winner with the New York Yankees
My ambition is to hit .400 and talk 1.000.
Anne Enright
Novelist and short-story writer
When I was seven I wanted to be a nun. When I was eight, I wanted to be a boy so that I could be anything I wanted. Also, of course, I wanted to be Samantha in Bewitched.
Jennifer Hudson
American singer and actress
I always wanted to be a singer.
More from Ann Patchett
View profile →Pulling yourself out of a wild ocean and on to a life raft.
I’ve never had a terrible job. I’ve been a cook, waitress, bookseller, teacher, freelance writer. I know what the bad jobs are and I haven’t done them.
Before email was invented.
A friend named Charles Strobel, who runs the Campus for Human Development in Nashville. It’s a homeless shelter. He lives a life of pure kindness, and he’s a funny guy.
More on identity & self
- What do you fear most? 256 answers
- Which trait in yourself do you like least? 239 answers
- What most recently moved you to tears? 192 answers
- What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? 158 answers
- How would you sum yourself up in three words? 114 answers
- What fills you with the most pride? 103 answers
Also answered this
Jack Whitehall, Shirley MacLaine, Kate Mosse, Pauline McLynn, Mary McCartney, Dawn O'Porter
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject