Failure, being caught out, making an idiot of myself.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
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.
Dying with a feeling of incompleteness.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2013 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 255 →
Omid Djalili
British stand-up comedian and actor
The concept of eternity.
David Hasselhoff
American actor, singer, and television personality
Not working and not being able to continue to live this lifestyle.
Not having the people I love around me.
More from Alan Arkin
View profile →Contentment with what I have.
Incompetent leadership.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 191 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 110 answers
- What are you most proud of? 99 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Ai Weiwei, Alfred Molina, Alison Steadman, Allison Janney, Ally McCoist, Amy Poehler
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject