Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Neil Young. Not in that order.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
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
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Gloria Steinem.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 408 →Nick Cave for his determination to hold a space for public discourse on the deep and difficult and mysterious elements of life.
Rose Ayling-Ellis
British actress
Dolly Parton. I love how she does what she wants, and lives how she wants, keeping her life so private. Also, she helped fund Covid vaccine research.
Mark Gatiss
British actor and writer
Alan Bennett, because he has been such a huge influence on me.
More from Brooke Shields
View profile →Drowning. The feeling of not being able to take a breath. I’m sure my therapist would have something to say about the deep psychological reasons for it.
Watching my girls laugh together. It is more short-lived than I’d like, but it does happen!
I would erase my fear of dying, but I suppose that would be erasing some of my human condition.
Humor. Laughing with my girlfriends is one of my great joys.
On a beach, watching my girls do cartwheels, with a Goombay Smash with a floater on top.
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Bobbi Brown, Trevor Noah, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Lena Dunham, Judith Light, Cat Deeley
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