Losing my mind.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Clothes moths (and the imminent threat of world war three).
The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 267 →
John Waters
American filmmaker
Losing my mind and not knowing it.
I’ve a phobia of statues. It does go back to childhood. My parents brought me to look at a French church late at night. Since then I can’t deal with them.
Father John Misty
American musician
Getting thrown down a well.
More from Dawn O’Porter
View profile →A drunk woman who threw epic dinner parties.
So far, getting older has made almost everything better.
When they ruin my story because they think theirs is better, so butt in before I’ve finished mine.
Perimenopausal anxiety, the terrible feeling of impending doom, something awful happening to my children, writing deadlines. Apart from that, I’m quite chilled.
My Siamese cat, which I had freeze-dried after she died. I really think their future partners will like it.
When I ruin someone else’s story because I think mine is better, so butt in before they’ve finished theirs.
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Also answered this
Michelle Collins, Anjelica Huston, Marcus Brigstocke, Stanley Tucci, Ai Weiwei, Philippa Dunne
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