The desire to please. It’s a losing battle.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
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.
Forgetting. Or, worse yet, not recognizing who my real friends are.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2010 source ↗
Others on this question
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Carl Barât
English musician
Fear and all of its consequences.
Gayle King
Broadcaster
I’m disorganized.
Too controlling about silly things like timings or not having toxic cleaning products in the house.
More from Carly Simon
View profile →Living in London in the late 60s—setting my hair with beer cans and shopping for shoes in Knightsbridge.
The absence of fear, and the recognition that we are all on this ship of fools together. We may in fact go to the big ship’s Art Deco bar and have a glass of champagne, toasting our foibles.
More on identity & self
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Adam Kay, Adam Lambert, Adele Parks, Adrian Dunbar, Al Franken, Alex Hassell
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