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Seventy and beyond

The longest view available. Several of these people were asked the same question decades earlier, and answered it differently.

38 people · 1,093 answers

When did you last change your mind about something important?

Originally asked

Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017

The exact question was part of every retrieved Vox 9 Questions installment.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Henry Marsh

Neurosurgeon and writer

Recorded · The Guardian · 2022

When I now think of how the uncertainty about my own future, and the proximity of death, threw me into torment, careering wildly between hope and despair, I look back in wonder at how…
Diana Athill

Editor and memoirist

Recorded · The Guardian · 2014

I can’t remember when I read, or was told, that he considered it a good thing to spend a short time every day thinking about death, thus getting used to its inevitability and coming to…
All 5 from seventy and beyond → or everyone who answered it

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.

George H. W. Bush

41st President of the United States, 1989–1993

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1995

Abraham Lincoln truly inspired me. It wasn't just the freeing of the slaves, he kept the Union together. Some people even forget that today.
Gloria Steinem

Writer and feminist organiser

Recorded · The Guardian · 2017

Dr Denis Mukwege, because he is to sexualised violence against females what Mandela was to apartheid.
John Lewis

U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966

Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2019

Barack Obama, because he believed he could be president of the United States, and he succeeded. He was kind, and he tried to set a high standard of leadership.
Paul Theroux

American travel writer and novelist

Recorded · The Guardian · 2013

The Buddhist monk Tapa Snim I met in Burma in 2007, all of whose earthly possessions he carried in a small bundle slung on one shoulder.
All 61 from seventy and beyond → or everyone who answered it

Do you rely more on inspiration or discipline to make your work?

Originally asked

The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series

A repeated Creative Independent tension, asked as inspiration, muse, discipline, ritual, or the requirement to show up.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

John Updike

Novelist, poet and critic; twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2004

Right. It saves you from giving up. This present novel that will be out — Villages — I several times thought it might be a bad idea and kind of abandoned it.
Denton Cooley

Cardiothoracic surgeon; founder of the Texas Heart Institute

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991

I think so. I really do. With your own effort, you can improve yourself, but people find they can’t improve beyond a certain point.
Frank O. Gehry

Architect; winner of the 1989 Pritzker Prize

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2016

It comes out of an intuition, or a learned intuition, I guess. You study a long time ’til you can do it.
Athol Fugard

Playwright, director and actor

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2014

Do I have a muse? Well, I don’t know if this is an adequate answer, but I suppose my muse is the people of South Africa.
Charles H. Townes

Physicist; Nobel laureate in physics for the invention of the maser and laser

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991

People tell me that I work hard. I never feel that I do particularly, because it’s fun. I always say, “Well, I’ve never worked hard in my life.” I’m busy, but most of what I do is enjoyable.
All 10 from seventy and beyond → or everyone who answered it

Everyone here · A–Z

Arlene Phillips, Bill Clinton, Charles Collingwood, Charles Dance, Charlie Munger, Chris Bonington, Ciarán Hinds, Desmond Tutu, Edmund Hillary, Frank Bowling, George H. W. Bush, Gloria Steinem, Graydon Carter, Henry Marsh, Isabel Allende, Jane Asher, Jimmy Carter, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, John Lewis, Jon Snow, Julian Lloyd Webber, Julie Andrews, Kellie Maloney, Lee Child, Marina Abramović, Mario Molina, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Havers, Oliver Sacks, Paula Wilcox, Pauline Black, Philippa Gregory, Richard Schiff, Russell Mael, Shakin' Stevens, Stephanie Beacham, Su Pollard, Warren Buffett

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