Mistaking shyness for not having anything to say.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
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.
Actually, I dislike dealing with schedules and logistics—mine and others’.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2010 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 196 →Not listening to me.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 March 2025 source ↗
Lack of self-criticism.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2014 source ↗
Making people smaller than they are because of something they can’t handle in themselves.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗
More from Martin Scorsese
View profile →When my friends and I were making Mean Streets, 1973.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2010 source ↗
Laziness, wasting time. I’d like to be able to make films faster.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2010 source ↗
I think you can strive to attain it, but be realistic about the outcome. In the meantime, I find I might be experiencing it through flashes or brief moments in love and art, and at times just being alive.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 March 2010 source ↗
First of all, I’d like to stop complaining—I’m beginning to annoy myself. I would like to learn to read faster, however. Again, the rest I’ve learned to live with.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 22 February 2010 source ↗
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