Terry Gross: What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Terry Gross said elsewhere, not written here

The inability to stop talking about themselves when they’re not being interviewed.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2012 source ↗

Others on this question

Shakin' Stevens Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter

Bullying, whether face to face or online.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2023 source ↗

Mike Wallace American journalist

Self-absorption.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2015 source ↗

People who can’t wait to argue.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 November 2025 source ↗

People having really loud conversations on their phones in public places.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2023 source ↗

Their willingness to put up with my endless explanations about why I can’t see them because I’m under deadline.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2012 source ↗

Living with severe chronic pain, or forgetting the name of the person I’m interviewing.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2012 source ↗

Swiftly, painlessly, and old.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 22 August 2012 source ↗

A glass of wine, a good dinner with my husband, and a day ahead of me without a deadline is close enough.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2012 source ↗

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