Dolly Parton
American singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman
Dishonesty and being late for appointments.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Laziness, lack of empathy, lack of humour.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →Mean-spiritedness and the inability to set and respect boundaries.
Not being able to laugh at themselves.
Trying to exercise authority over one.
More from Sarah Hadland
View profile →A missionary in Africa – I think that was Sunday school-based.
Lemn Sissay. What happened to him and what he’s done with his life is extraordinary.
Years ago, I was trying to get with one of the big agencies and I cobbled together a VHS tape of me in adverts and sobbing in The Bill, and took it United Agents for the attention of Dallas Smith. A week later I went back and said, “Has she looked at the tape?” And they were, like, “Dallas is a he, no he hasn’t and he doesn’t want to,” and handed it back to me.
If there could be a double of me to look after my child when I’m working.
Very impatient, bossy, always late.
Speedy, bossy, loving.
More on values & belief
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- What are you unwilling to optimise? 30 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 14 answers
- What is the most overrated virtue? 10 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 9 answers
Also answered this
Ina Garten, Ardal O'Hanlon, Mel Brooks, Richard Feynman, Robert Evans, Vera Wang
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