Slugs. And planetary annihilation.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
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.
I become very anxious if I think I’ve hurt someone.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →
Shirley Manson
Scottish singer and songwriter; lead vocalist of Garbage
Dying of the same awful disease that took my mother – a particularly aggressive form of dementia called Pick’s disease.
Sharks. The ones in the ocean.
Food in a sink drain.
More from Rory Stewart
View profile →Moments of vanity, carelessness and unkindness.
A painting of a man who was killed on the Dutch coast in 1600.
Being too thin-skinned.
Scrappy, quixotic, curious.
Living in a ski resort.
Having somebody pull my judo trousers down at a competition when I was seven. And finding I wasn’t wearing any pants.
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- 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
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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