Bryn Terfel
Welsh bass-baritone singer
I’ve been a strong advocate that all my five children should be great swimmers, so you can deduce what my fear is.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
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.
Not being able to breathe – I get very panicky at the thought.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
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Kellie Maloney
Retired boxing manager, promoter and politician
Losing my family.
Michael Flatley
American step dancer
On my deathbed thinking I wish I would have done something that I didn’t do.
Failure, being caught out, making an idiot of myself.
More from Pauline McLynn
View profile →I hope the happiest moment is still ahead of me.
Walking along Oxford Street on Saturday pulling a shopping trolley that my mother bought me. I remember saying, “I’m never going to use that!” and there I was, very grateful to have it in my life. She died before Christmas and I can’t ring her to tell her that she was right.
Actors live in a constant state of disappointment. I’ll never be happy with what I’ve done.
A hairdresser – I still want to be a hairdresser.
Never be rigid in your thinking, be open.
Eight or nine years ago, I disgraced myself in the Japanese ambassador’s home in Dublin, at a celebration for my late mother-in-law’s book about living in Japan. Afterwards, when I had to apologise, she told me it was the worst night of her life and, because I was drunk enough not to remember the details, it will never not be the most embarrassing night of my life. People are filling in details even now – “Remember when you fell under the table during the first course?”
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- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 204 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 161 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 114 answers
- What are you most proud of? 109 answers
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Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, Omid Djalili, Fay Ripley, Angela Griffin, Willem Dafoe
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