The fact that, until recently, “the end of the world” would have seemed pretentious and evasive, and now seems like the only possible answer.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
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.
Becoming deaf and blind, which is what happened to my father.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →
Kevin Rowland
British singer
Insanity. I am on a recovery programme – clean from drugs and drink for many years – and if I stopped doing all that stuff I’d go crazy pretty quick and pick up drugs again, because I was a real fucking addict.
Not waking up in the morning.
Rosie Jones
British comedian and actress
Not being liked.
More from Stephanie Beacham
View profile →None. I love reading, and I read a good book and a bad book at the same time.
Loved you in Dallas.
I think that’s a thesis.
Two ears. I am deaf in my right ear and I’ve just developed musical tinnitus – it’s not an interesting tune and you don’t choose it. I had three weeks of Hare Krishna night and day. Then it changed to Rod Stewart’s Sailing.
I was 15 working in Boots on Barnet High Street and it was terrifying. At coffee break you had to know whose cup was whose, and taking the wrong cup was a crime. I’ve met bitches, but I tell you they started out in Boots in Barnet.
Actress, mother, grandmother.
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
Patrick Stewart, Sally Mann, Cory Taylor, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry, Sofia Coppola
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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