I would like to be more accepting of the faults of others.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Question
Which writers or artists most influenced your work?
Taste & recommendation
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
Verbatim recurring item in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I'd grow more hair and try to be less mortal.
Charlotte Philby, My secret life, The Independent, 1 May 2009 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 57 →If I could change one thing about myself, it would be to change the idea that I should change something about myself.
Gloria Steinem
Writer and feminist organiser
I would love to have a good memory. I’m at an age when remembering something right away is as good as an orgasm.
Alan Titchmarsh
Gardener and broadcaster
But I should have more confidence, it's ridiculous.
More from Alain de Botton
View profile →Norman Mailer, Geoff Dyer and Roland Barthes. I'm interested in writing that takes in the great questions. I'm curious as to whether you can be profound in the course of reporting the incidents of everyday life.
I believed that the real challenge in love was finding ‘the right one’. I now realise that it’s not a case of finding the right one, so much as learning to love rightly.
Machismo.
At 12, I wanted to be an architect, at 18, a writer, and now, at forty, an architect again. I’m powerfully drawn to everything related to building, but I also love ideas. These are my two passions.
Some dodgy liver function tests in 2004.
Be ambitious beyond merely dreaming of the first book being published. Already now try to imagine where you want this to go, where you want to be at 60.
More on identity & self
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- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 167 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 121 answers
Also answered this
Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, Carrie Fisher, Danielle Steel, Patti Smith, Adam Gopnik
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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