Lemn Sissay: Which trait in yourself do you like least? — FLAPSS

The question

Which trait in yourself do you like least?

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.

LS

Lemn Sissay

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Believing in, even admiring, people who refuse to believe in me, and not believing people who do.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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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.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2025 source ↗

I dislike my impatience.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2019 source ↗

Stephanie Beacham

Well, I’m always right.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2025 source ↗

Daniel Radcliffe

My ability to invariably say exactly the wrong thing in any given situation.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2014 source ↗

More from Lemn Sissay

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Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

Also my most triumphant: 2017 at the Royal Court. Julie Hesmondhalgh reads my psychologist’s report over two hours. Every excruciating intimate word of it. Extreme verbatim theatre. One night only.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question What disappointment has stayed with you longest? Failure & regret

I spent my life searching for family. I travelled around the world to look each one of them in the eye. Unfortunately, but understandably, for most of them, I am their biggest disappointment.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question What lesson has mattered most in your life? Time & hindsight

Life is not worth living if there is no one you would die for.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question How would you want people to remember you? Death & what remains

In a photo album of just one family.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change? Failure & regret

I would build relationships. I would remember people’s significant moments. I would not fear closeness.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

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