Serena Williams
United States professional tennis player, 1995–2022
I don’t think about my greatest fear.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
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.
Lack of purpose.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2015 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →It’s a toss-up between a tarantula crawling on me and dying alone.
Having no way of earning money.
Jane Asher
English actress and author
I’ve always been frightened of the dark. I sometimes wonder whether it stems from being away filming from the age of five. I can remember being devastatingly homesick and having a little nightlight I used to look at to reassure myself things were all right.
More from Timothy Hutton
View profile →An arbitrary contrarian.
Chuck Feeney (the James Bond of philanthropy).
Making trails and building a tree house.
Playing catch with my son Noah at Fenway Park.
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- 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
Charles Dance, Roger Ebert, Rose Tremain, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Tim Peake, Alfred Molina
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