The question
What do you fear most?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.
Not being able to work.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 February 2026 source ↗
Apathy, either from an audience, the people around me or myself.
I am spooked by water underground, water in drains and water in machinery. I am very frightened of mill wheels.
Pain of any sort.
Many readers have informed me that it is a tragic and dreary business to go into death without faith. I don’t feel that way. “Faith” is neutral. All depends on what is believed in. I have no desire to live forever. The concept frightens me. I am 69, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things.
I didn’t get a part in a TV series for a writer that I’ve always wanted to work with, but I wasn’t right for it, if I’m truly honest.
Removal of fear and anxiety.
Friendly, opinionated, hilarious.
Insurance – it’s such a scam.
Learning lines.
Fifty per cent of the books on my shelf, so much so that I gave them away.
Stephen Fry, Sofia Coppola, Cory Taylor, Helena Bonham Carter, Patrick Stewart, Sally Mann
Search the directory for somebody in particular.