At age 97 and counting, guess.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Food in a sink drain.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →
Gino D'Acampo
Italian-British celebrity chef and media personality
Overcooking pasta for my Italian family in Napoli – they would kill me.
John Waters
American filmmaker
Losing my mind and not knowing it.
Vick Hope
British television and radio presenter
When I was growing up, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger fear to contend with on a day‑to-day basis. It hasn’t proved to be a bother yet, but there’s still time.
More from Kevin Bacon
View profile →Lying. Let’s not call it “untruthful.” Or “factually inaccurate.” I don’t even call it bullshit, because I like bulls. And bulls need to shit. So you can’t hold that against them. Let’s call it what it is: lying.
Before I knew what being an actor was, I wanted to be one.
They want nothing but friendship.
I can’t stand the way my voice will crack if I’m making a speech. I hate public speaking and the emotion it dredges up.
My wife – for her intelligence, talent, ability to survive this business and be such a fantastic mother to our two kids. (Of course, I have to say that, because she’s sitting right here.)
As someone who did what he could with what he had.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 195 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 111 answers
- What are you most proud of? 103 answers
Also answered this
Jim Kerr, Fiona Allen, David Chang, Tina Turner, Norman Lear, Rebecca Lucy Taylor
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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