Bryn Terfel
Welsh bass-baritone singer
I’ve been a strong advocate that all my five children should be great swimmers, so you can deduce what my fear is.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
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.
I don’t even voice them. Perhaps the books are my outlet here.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 August 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 255 →Not being able to work.
Living a life of regret because of fear.
The greatest fear I can remember is coming back from WW II and being amazed that I was more afraid to audition for a job than I was flying 52 missions.
More from Harlan Coben
View profile →A white-hot explosion that turns into a comforting warmth.
I was followed by a mob of fans when I was doing a photoshoot in Paris. When I signed autographs for them during a break, one remarked: “Who the fuck is Harlan Coben? I told you it wasn’t Bruce Willis.”
I worked a janitorial job, cleaning university dormitories after students had gone home for the summer. You can’t imagine the condition some of those rooms were in. They could have doubled as sets for a slasher film.
We are too often advised to live life to the fullest. That’s too much pressure. The key is to find joy and poignancy in the quiet and mundane. Life is lived between the so-called big moments.
With a wistful smile.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but if I could go back and fix the mistake, I wouldn’t be here.
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- 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
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