I’m chronically late. It’s magical thinking: I actually believe I can take a shower and get dressed in three minutes, that the train will be pulling into the station the moment I arrive….
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.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →Oversharing. I long to be intimately connected to people and sometimes, among strangers, I don’t read the room.
My ability to stress myself out.
Thinking that I am less-than. That thinking is cunning, baffling, and insidious, and I must guard against it every hour of every day.
More from Toni Collette
View profile →Floating on my back in the ocean.
Anyone brave enough to truly be themselves.
People-pleasing.
Right now: Summer. Dusk. On my couch watching Australian Open tennis with my kids and dog. Doors wide open to a beautiful body of water. The first star of the night just appeared in the sky. Life is magical.
Losing my mind.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Paapa Essiedu, Eugene Levy, Robert De Niro, Judy Blume, Erin Doherty, Leona Lewis
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject