Pauline McLynn: Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?

Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?

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.

Recorded Pauline McLynn said elsewhere, not written here

I talk over people all the time.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Don Rickles

Having no patience.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2017 source ↗

John Malkovich American actor

How long do we have?

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2013 source ↗

Daryl McCormack Irish actor

Oversharing. I long to be intimately connected to people and sometimes, among strangers, I don’t read the room.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 February 2023 source ↗

Bear Grylls

Too controlling about silly things like timings or not having toxic cleaning products in the house.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗

More from Pauline McLynn

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Question What most recently made you cry? Identity & self

Walking along Oxford Street on Saturday pulling a shopping trolley that my mother bought me. I remember saying, “I’m never going to use that!” and there I was, very grateful to have it in my life. She died before Christmas and I can’t ring her to tell her that she was right.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 source ↗