Climate change.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 August 2026 source ↗
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
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.
We live in a fearful age: Brexit, Covid, global warming, cancel culture, war in Ukraine. Add in pancreatic cancer and you find me in an advanced and complex state of anxiety.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 255 →
John Grisham
American writer and lawyer
Having a stroke.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2017 source ↗
Fear is for frightened people. I’m not one of those.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2025 source ↗
Joseph Fiennes
English actor
That fear becomes too great.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 October 2008 source ↗
More from Rose Tremain
View profile →The film of Restoration. A beautiful cast. An award-winning designer. A massive budget. A dog’s dinner.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
When I first met Richard, in 1992, on a British Council writers’ tour of Adelaide. We were drinking Australian lager while parakeets squawked rudely in the neighbourhood gumtrees.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
Like coming home.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
The only drink I really, really like is champagne.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
Meryl Streep. For all her truthful and perfected offerings that have taken me to an “elsewhere”, in which my mind could feel both soothed and stimulated.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
Talking in cliches. We have the most economic, resonant and versatile language in the world, yet so many people use it in a dull and boring way.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 242 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 191 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 110 answers
- What are you most proud of? 98 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Ai Weiwei, Alan Arkin, Alfred Molina, Alison Steadman, Allison Janney, Ally McCoist
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject