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.
A visual artist.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2024 source ↗
A saxophonist, but destiny chose another path for me, and I’m glad it happened that way.
A barrister or a pop star.
I wanted to be in the army or a spy in the intelligence service.
What I am now, but with a better singing voice.
Completely nuts.
I would have been OK with feeling shy. In my teenage years, I thought being an actor meant that you had to be a little more performative.
I’m actually looking forward to getting older.
People give me a hard time about my hats. Over Christmas, this drunk woman shouted something about me having a shit hat because I had a red beanie on. Last week at a party, someone gave me a hard time for wearing a cap. I just think about melting ice caps when this happens.
I once asked a young woman if she had ever heard of the musician Laura Marling, insinuating I knew Laura Marling, to which she replied: “I am Laura Marling.”
I’ve been lugging around Doris Lessing’s books, which I have yet to read.
Lee Child, Esther Rantzen, Kate Humble, Jon Sopel, Jack Davenport, Lauren Laverne
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