A sense of humor and/or the ability to use a toilet correctly.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2017
One question · 6 of 65 answers to it
What do you value most in your friends?
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
A fixed Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire item asked across its three-decade archive, with independent variants in friendship and profile interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Film composer
They can take the piss out of me and it still feels like wisdom and loyalty.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2019
Kindness and laughter. If someone makes me laugh, I’m halfway in love.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2024
If I haven’t seen them in years and yet can pick up conversation like it was yesterday.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2011
Being there through thin and thin. That’s friendship treasured.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2013
Theatre and film director
Love of fun and food and great conversation.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2022
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
What does love feel like?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
English actress
Relief and an achy feeling in your cheeks from smiling.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
British stand-up comedian and actor
Jumping on the seats of a deserted carriage on a London-bound train from Canterbury in 1989.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
English actor and activist
Different nowadays. It feels nourishing.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2019
What is the most rewarding part of being a parent?
Originally asked
Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions
Vogue asked close variants of Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, and Nicki Minaj between 2020 and 2023; the same prompt recurs independently in parenting interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Musician, singer and songwriter
Boy, being a parent is a hard job, I think, because in parenting you want your kids to like you. Too much sometimes.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2004
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 1997-2009; Nobel Peace Prize 2005
I think it’s more modeling. I never bring in my children and say, “Listen, these are the values you should follow in life.” I think it’s a modeling by my wife and me.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2006
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
My daughters are something, and they just surprise and enchant and impress me more and more every single day as they grow up.
Recorded · The White House (Obama administration archive) · 2017
Who do you turn to when you need advice?
Originally asked
Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions
Vogue's 73 Questions has repeatedly used this direct advice-network prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
American physician-scientist
I surround myself with brilliant people who are wise and whose advice I can lean on at every possible moment. The Genome Project is a wonderful team effort.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2000
British biochemist
People refer to the ‘LMB culture’ as the thing, one of the things, that makes it special. It’s an attention to people who are willing to tackle very big problems.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2018
Poet, memoirist and civil rights activist
Try to retain some of the finest parts of the African American culture, some of the sweetest parts.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2000
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1205
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 46
- Sport 108
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
- Values & belief 13
- Change of mind 1
- Failure & regret 9
- Craft & work 36
- Money & investment 4
- Taste & recommendation 6
- Relationships 5
- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →Alan Arkin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angela Griffin, Antonio Villaraigosa, Ardal O'Hanlon, Arine Aprahamian, Aziz Sancar, Beth Breeze, Carlos Fuentes, Charles Bernstein, Charles Osgood, Daniel Ek, Don Rickles, Erin Doherty, Eugene Levy, Frederick Sanger, Gok Wan, James Rosenquist, Jeff Goldblum, Johannes Radebe, John Prescott, John Wooden, Julian Lloyd Webber, Katalin Karikó, Kate Humble, Keith Richards, Margaret Atwood, Martin Clunes, Monica Dolan, Natalie Diaz, Natalie Mering, Ory Okolloh, Paapa Essiedu, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Robert Glenister, Robert Wilson, Susan Greenfield, Tony Judt, Wayne Rooney
Answers that stay at one address
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
- People
- 1,671
- Answers
- 7,149
- Questions
- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.