When I ruin someone else’s story because I think mine is better, so butt in before they’ve finished theirs.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
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.
Not following through on things.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Courtney Pine
British jazz musician
I am not studious enough. I get easily distracted.
The way I allow myself to talk to myself.
Catastrophising.
More from Jared Harris
View profile →I’m happy whenever I’m with my wife, Allegra.
I remember really wanting to go into space. I liked the idea of flying.
I worked on a kibbutz in Israel and had to clean out the chicken run. It was like an oven. Inside were rows and rows of chickens that had been shitting for months – the whole floor was six inches deep in chicken shit.
On the interstate. Anyone who has driven in the United States will know that you are always very close to death – it is like the wild west on the freeways.
Unemployment – I’m an actor.
Where do I begin?
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Paapa Essiedu, Eugene Levy, Robert De Niro, Judy Blume, Leona Lewis, Erin Doherty
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