Thinking that I am less-than. That thinking is cunning, baffling, and insidious, and I must guard against it every hour of every day.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
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.
If hoarding and procrastination were Olympic sports, I’d have at least 70 gold medals.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
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Willem Dafoe
Actor
Punctuality (outside of work, of course).
Outside my very close-knit group of friends, socially I’m terrible.
I can always see two points of view, which makes it hard to have a row.
More from Audra McDonald
View profile →Being at home on a Sunday night with my husband, Will, and all of our children, eating chicken tikka masala and naan from our favorite restaurant.
In the hospital giving birth to my second daughter with my first daughter right there in the room as it was happening. I don’t remember any pain. I just remember feeling more alive and full of fierce mama bear love than at any other point in my life.
Meghan Markle. I don’t know how she continues to walk through this world with the grace, strength, and purpose that she does given the unbearable amount of vitriol and hate she has been subjected to, but she does. I wish she didn’t have to.
Balloons. I have a big phobia of balloons. Big.
In my bed at home at a ripe old age with the knowledge that my children, and grandchildren if I have any, are thriving, happy, and provided for.
More on identity & self
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Adrian Dunbar, Alison Steadman, Angela Griffin, Carrie Fisher, Charlotte Church, Craig Charles
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