That I can’t write.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗
identity
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.
One of 4 questions in The Proust Questionnaire here.
On the record
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
Read by age
Any age
In their thirties 10
In their forties 13
In their fifties 16
In their sixties 12
Seventy and beyond 14
Ironically, it’s talking to hundreds of people in a room.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 October 2023 source ↗
Being lost and no one wanting to find me.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 January 2024 source ↗
Slugs. And planetary annihilation.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 April 2024 source ↗
When I was little, a couple of rapes took place in Glasgow. I remember my mum saying to walk in the middle of the pavement, and to this day I am very conscious of where I am.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 May 2024 source ↗
It used to be loneliness, and it might still be.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 January 2025 source ↗
Dying when my children are still young. I know how much it hurt me. I was 30 when my mum died and 39 when my dad died, and even then, that was too young.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 January 2025 source ↗
That we’re all going to hell in a handcart and Trump is driving.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 April 2025 source ↗
Immunity to cruelty.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2025 source ↗
It was reading out loud, but no longer. (I am dyslexic.) I was encouraged by my husband to do a speech for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which helped me gain my confidence, and the fear disappeared.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗
Losing my husband. We are properly codependent.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 November 2025 source ↗
I become very anxious if I think I’ve hurt someone.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
Small things make me anxious – like social things – but I have no big fears because I have faith in my heart.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗
To be completely alone.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 June 2026 source ↗
As an Italian, tinned spaghetti. As a child, I was once served it at someone’s house. It was quite frightening.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2026 source ↗
I can’t say it.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗
0 answers from members
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