Which living person do you most admire, and why?

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.

Recorded Henry Louis Gates Jr. said elsewhere, not written here
It’s a tie between Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr., Wole Soyinka, and Oprah Winfrey. All are fearless, all know themselves, all have examined themselves, and all are comfortable with what they have seen.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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My husband, who always seems to have everything in control and is so consistent.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2024 source ↗
Jackie Chan Hong Kong actor and martial artist
Wow, so many – Robert De Niro, James Cameron, Will Smith.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 November 2010 source ↗

More from Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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Question What is your greatest fear? Identity & self
That we will be remembered as a people who locked our fellow citizens in cages and who believe that some people are rich and some people are poor because “it’s their nature” and that racism and poverty are inevitable parts of the order of things; that M.L.K. and Bobby Kennedy died in vain; and that no one any longer believes what M.L.K. said in his Nobel Prize address in Oslo: “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2019 source ↗
Question When were you happiest? Time & hindsight
Well, I’m happiest on Martha’s Vineyard, between July 1 and Labor Day, riding my tricycle with Larry Bobo every afternoon and fishing with Buddy Vanderhoop. But I was happiest from my childhood through high school in Piedmont, West Virginia; it was magical. I was sorry when it was time to go off to college.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2019 source ↗

More on values & belief

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Olivia de Havilland, Ian McEwan, PP Arnold, Stuart Broad, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Mary Berry

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