Believing in, even admiring, people who refuse to believe in me, and not believing people who do.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
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.
How long do we have?
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2013 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →Impatience and being bossy.
I can be pedantic at times.
Not getting to the point.
More from John Malkovich
View profile →The susceptibility to ideology or tribalism.
I admire the mother of my children a great deal, because she’s interesting, smart and funny.
That the Proust Questionnaire will continue to be used by lazy, overworked journalists for another century or so (since you asked …).
By my friends as hopefully someone who was a good friend, or at least amusing, but I don’t need to be remembered by people I don’t know.
A baseball pitcher.
If one could shut off the modern world and all the information that flows, not necessarily into your brain but at your face, and doesn’t benefit anything or make one better informed.
More on identity & self
Also answered this · A–Z
Adrian Dunbar, Alison Steadman, Angela Griffin, Audra McDonald, Carrie Fisher, Charlotte Church
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject