I try not to be a burden to people, I’m too strong and independent for that.
The Guardian, The Guardian, 13 November 2021 source ↗
The question
What is your greatest fear?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.
Others on this question
View all 316 →Anything underneath me in water I can’t see to the bottom of.
Rafael Nadal
Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
I don’t think I have one in particular. I am pretty calm. Just some small things that I better not comment on :-).
Danger to my children. And tidal waves.
Having no way of earning money.
More from Barbara Taylor Bradford
View profile →The death of my beloved husband Bob [Bradford, an American movie producer] in 2019 was devastating because he hadn’t been ill. We were married for nearly 56 years and together for 58. He had a stroke in the night. His last words were, “I love you.” I’m so glad I told him, “I love you too, darling.” A week later he was gone.
I've never really been unhappy.
I was a serious little girl growing up in Leeds and had supportive parents who were instrumental in my success.
Not having my parents around to share my success.
I told Sean Connery he’d have to lose his Glaswegian accent and take elocution lessons if he wanted to be an actor. When he became James Bond, I never got a chance to tell him how wrong I’d been.
No man has ever tried to pinch my bottom or lay a hand on me, and they’ve always shown me great respect. There’s a lot of rapists and bad men out there but a lot of decent ones too.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 291 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 255 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 196 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 167 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 151 answers
- What are you most proud of? 119 answers
Also answered this
Bob Woodward, Julian Clary, Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Coben, Cory Taylor, Christopher Hitchens
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject