Gayle King
Broadcaster
I’m disorganized.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I am not studious enough. I get easily distracted.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
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John Malkovich
American actor
How long do we have?
Julian Lennon
English musician, photographer, and philanthropist
Fear, anxiety and panic attacks.
Outside my very close-knit group of friends, socially I’m terrible.
More from Courtney Pine
View profile →We were doing a tour in Japan and as our plane landed, it rose again, out of the blue. About 10 years later there was this programme about 10 of the nearest misses, and it was my flight. There was another plane on the runway and we nearly landed on top of it. I didn’t know until 10 years later.
When my new-born daughter Cleopatra died and I wasn’t there. I was doing a US tour and I remember sitting down in an airport and losing it.
A saxophone for £8,000.
When I realised that I could be a musician. I was 16.
I would have spent more time practising and got a proper lawyer to sort out my first album contract.
More on identity & self
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Adam Lambert, Audra McDonald, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Dickinson, Bryn Terfel, Carl Barât
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