Stephen Fry
Actor, writer and broadcaster
Being found out.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2015 source ↗
What is your greatest fear?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
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.
Going back to addiction.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 254 →
John Simm
English musician and actor
Outliving my kids – and rats.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2023 source ↗
Gloria Steinem
Writer and feminist organiser
Dying just a millisecond before I was about to say something I really wanted the people I love to hear.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2020 source ↗
Jack Whitehall
English comedian, actor, presenter and writer
Turning into my father.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 April 2023 source ↗
More from Paul Merson
View profile →On holiday in Orlando with my wife, Kate, and kids just before lockdown. I wasn’t drinking or gambling. I was so happy, so at peace with myself – I’d been searching for that for many a year.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
For me, love is working through things when it’s not going well.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
Nothing, because it’s up to me how I feel. I’ve been a millionaire three times and I still wanted to kill myself.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
Thirty-odd years ago I bought a black pinstripe suit which I thought was £900. But when I went to pay that was just the jacket – the trousers and waistcoat were extra. I didn’t have the balls to put anything back. I dread to think how much it cost me in the end.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
Walsall fans. I wanted to be a good manager but I was really bad with drink and gambling at the time. I should have done better.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
When you jump out of addiction and look back, things like drink-driving and sitting in crack houses are not good.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
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