I still say yes to too many things.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
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.
Thinking that I’m right when I’m wrong. But not only that – being able to convince other people I’m right and then finding out I’m wrong.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 October 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →Impatience and anger.
Julian Clary
English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter
My cold indifference towards discarded friends.
Michael Flatley
American step dancer
I don’t give myself that much thought.
More from Lucy Beaumont
View profile →Some man in the street stopped me and said: “If you were a few inches taller you’d be dangerous.” I’ve no idea what he meant.
That money doesn’t buy happiness.
Thinking I’ve upset somebody.
I worked in a paper factory at five o’clock on a Saturday morning when I was in my early 20s. I’d go out raving the night before, get an hour’s sleep and then go to the factory. I was covered in paper cuts and used to think I heard people talking to me; they gave me a lot of breaks because they thought I was going mad.
I remember going to my auntie Pauline’s house in winter when I was eight or nine and she made me a roast beef sandwich. I ate it and fell asleep next to a fire. I felt like a cat, fed and left to nap.
Lovely but useless.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Sharon Corr, Shonda Rhimes, Douglas Booth, Jason Derulo, Tina Fey, Tom Fletcher
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