Judith Light: What is the trait you most deplore in others?

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 Judith Light said elsewhere, not written here

Bigotry and cruelty in any form.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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Anne Enright Novelist and short-story writer

I find it really interesting the way people are drawn to power, usually male power, sometimes in its dark mode. I wonder what they get from it. My experience of bastards is that there is very little material benefit gained from being in their company, though you feel there might be, any minute. Or you get something for a while and then the polarity switches. It’s a huge con. Trump made the mechanism clear – in this, I think he is a timely figure.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2024 source ↗

Stephanie Beacham

People who think they’re always right.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2025 source ↗

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Basketball player and author

Dishonesty. It destroys relationships. It’s something celebrities especially have to guard against because people are prone to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2020 source ↗

Chris Rock

I hate rich people that feel a need to tell you how hard they had it (“We had the smallest pool on the block”). And I hate poor people that feel a need to puff up their bios so they can better fit in with the rich—you meet a lot of Talented Mr. Ripleys in showbiz.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2016 source ↗