I can be pedantic at times.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
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.
Self-righteousness and a phobia of embarrassment.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 November 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Kathy Lette
Australian-British author
I can’t cook. I use my smoke alarm as a timer.
John Grisham
American writer and lawyer
Impatience; the inability to savor the moment.
I’m chronically late. It’s magical thinking: I actually believe I can take a shower and get dressed in three minutes, that the train will be pulling into the station the moment I arrive….
More from Brandi Carlile
View profile →Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
I’m not thrilled with my lack of commitment to feminism in my 20s.
To kids I bullied in school. I have apologised and I will continue to. To repay those things karmically, I will watch my kids’ hearts like a hawk for signs of hardening or any distortions of empathy that they might develop.
Earnest, driven, Gemini.
Human, evolving and faithful.
I’m the happiest right now. I can see that I’m in a kind of sweet spot: my parents are alive, my kids are little, my wife is hot and my body doesn’t hurt.
More on identity & self
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Jean Smart, George H. W. Bush, Zack Polanski, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Laurie Metcalf, Takashi Murakami
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