Jonathan Safran Foer
American novelist
It's not a competition.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
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.
My mom, for her unflappable ability to be sanguine (though she sometimes dips into Pollyanna territory).
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
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John Simpson
English journalist
The problem with my job is that you meet people you admire and then you don’t admire them so much. The only one I carried on admiring was Nelson Mandela.
Una Stubbs
British actress, television personality, and dancer
My best friend, the choreographer Dougie Squires. Somebody once said his heart is like a hotel with hundreds of doors for everybody.
Armistead Maupin
American writer
My friend Ian McKellen, who has an extraordinary record as an actor and a gay activist.
More from Monica Lewinsky
View profile →How my PTSD manifests—it feels like being the only ballerina in the company saddled with a 100-pound backpack and told to go out onstage and still be graceful.
Compassion. Wisdom. Wit. The delicate balance of knowing when I need tough love and when I need support. Plus, call me crazy, but I’m also partial to friends who don’t surreptitiously record our calls.
It’s a toss-up between a tarantula crawling on me and dying alone.
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Clive Myrie, Desmond Tutu, Tina Brown, Andrew Marr, George H. W. Bush, Liz Jones
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