Adam Kay
British comedy writer, author, youtuber, comedian and former physician
Self-destruction.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
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.
When I’m self-involved or insensitive to others.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →Self-loathing that rises to the level of deploring.
Too controlling about silly things like timings or not having toxic cleaning products in the house.
Joyce Carol Oates
Novelist, short story writer and essayist
If I had a trait that I truly deplored, I would work to erase or modify it…Probably, a lack of discipline. (Though people think that I write quickly, & don’t revise, quite the reverse is true.) To myself, I work very slowly & painstakingly, & am often frustrated by accomplishing so little. My friend Margaret Atwood has said that in the late afternoon she is likely to be overcome by a feeling of desperation that she has accomplished so little that day, & this is a feeling I share, often. It seems that I waste most of my time gazing out the window here at my (overgrown) garden; & when I am in Berkeley, where I spend about one-third of the year, I am forever gazing out the window toward the San Francisco Bay & a continually changing, always-beautiful sky.
More from Bonnie Raitt
View profile →Dolores Huerta.
In my sleep in my 90s, after a great gig.
As a kid, my summers at camp in the Adirondacks. And as an adult, when I’m onstage.
That injustice, ignorance, and fascism win.
Balancing my inner and outer life.
Arrogance and entitlement.
More on identity & self
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Adam Lambert, Audra McDonald, Bruce Dickinson, Bryn Terfel, Carl Barât, Chaka Khan
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