The death of my loved ones.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
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.
Losing my makeup bag.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 October 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 266 →At age 97 and counting, guess.
Henry R. Kravis
Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Oh, all the time. We have a fear all the time. But that’s what keeps us going, that’s what keeps us focused. You have to have a fear. People who say, “I have no fear. I’m not afraid of ever failing,” are kidding themselves. Sometimes it’s the fear of failure, of not wanting to fail, that makes people as great as they are. I know that’s what pushes me, a lot.
Rosie Jones
British comedian and actress
Not being liked.
More from Lucy Beaumont
View profile →Thinking I’ve upset somebody.
Some man in the street stopped me and said: “If you were a few inches taller you’d be dangerous.” I’ve no idea what he meant.
That money doesn’t buy happiness.
I remember going to my auntie Pauline’s house in winter when I was eight or nine and she made me a roast beef sandwich. I ate it and fell asleep next to a fire. I felt like a cat, fed and left to nap.
Thinking that I’m right when I’m wrong. But not only that – being able to convince other people I’m right and then finding out I’m wrong.
I worked with Stephen Fry recently and we had a real heart-to-heart. I asked: “What was it like being in prison for being gay?” And thank God someone came in and he didn’t hear me say it. I was mixing him up with when he played Oscar Wilde. I could picture him in his cell.
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- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 252 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 204 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 161 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 114 answers
- What are you most proud of? 109 answers
Also answered this
Bonnie Raitt, Martha Stewart, Yo-Yo Ma, Roger Moore, Monica Lewinsky, Mary Tyler Moore
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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