I’m not into self-deploring.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
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.
Procrastination.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 252 →
Jim Kerr
Scottish singer and songwriter
I’ve learned to give myself a break. Everyone should.
Absentmindedness.
I’m chronically late. It’s magical thinking: I actually believe I can take a shower and get dressed in three minutes, that the train will be pulling into the station the moment I arrive….
More from Bruce Dickinson
View profile →Runway 27R at Heathrow.
I’ve been asleep at the wheel on the M11, had an engine fire over the Atlantic in a light aircraft, driven unprotected through an enemy firing zone to do a gig in wartime Sarajevo – the list goes on and on. But I did have stage 3 throat cancer and was cured by some fantastic UK medics.
Well, I’m not too happy about snakes. I also hate sand. It’s very inconvenient.
“What makes you think you are so special?”
I once threw up on the shoes of one of my vocal heroes, the Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. He sent me home in a taxi with a towel.
A Cessna Golden Eagle eight-seater aircraft. I flew it across the Atlantic both ways and did two US tours and two European tours in it. I finally sold it and got a job as an airline pilot in which I was paid to fly, rather than the other way round.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Father John Misty, Julie Andrews, Chaka Khan, Julian Lennon, Courtney Pine, Dolly Parton
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject