The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?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 getting to the point.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗
Oh, I have a long list. You should ask me what I like about myself—that list is much shorter.
I don’t think anyone should deplore anything about themselves. You can always improve things, but by deploring you’re putting yourself on a losing streak.
Being hard on myself. I don’t want to pass that on to my daughters, so I’m trying to stop.
I can’t deal with any level of stress.
I spent about five years living in Paris thinking I would become Kristin Scott Thomas, and it didn’t happen.
Mistaking shyness for not having anything to say.
Ponderous, over thinking.
My partner was doing a play in Hong Kong last year and I went to visit him, and I bought him a beautiful teacup. But I didn’t look at the price tag before I took it to the till and it was £100, the most expensive teacup imaginable.
You can only do one thing at a time.
Someone said that I had a laugh like Jimmy Carr.
Cyndi Lauper, Chaka Khan, Guz Khan, Monica Dolan, Gina Lollobrigida, Julian Lennon
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