Feeling and being unfocused.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 October 2025 source ↗
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
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.
Flirting with danger.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2013 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 242 →Self-criticism.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2014 source ↗
Doomscrolling on my phone.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2025 source ↗
Vic, my wife, has over the years reduced my impatience, but anybody who has been in a traffic jam with me will know that she hasn’t completed the task yet.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗
More from Robert Evans
View profile →At the altar all seven times.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2013 source ↗
Anyone who can laugh at themselves.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2013 source ↗
False humility.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2013 source ↗
Being there through thin and thin. That’s friendship treasured.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 December 2013 source ↗
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