Entitlement or a lack of manners. Though I find they often flock together.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2017
One question · 6 of 210 answers to it
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Lying. Let’s not call it “untruthful.” Or “factually inaccurate.” I don’t even call it bullshit, because I like bulls. And bulls need to shit. So you can’t hold that against them.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2025
The inability to appreciate true talent.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2023
I’m irritated by critics and academics who dismiss poetry that is popular, comprehensible or humorous.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
Complaining about the weather, because there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2026
American actor
The inability to negotiate peace and truly forgive.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2023
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Glenda Jackson said I was an amateur during rehearsal for The White Devil at the Old Vic. I called her a cow, but that was inadequate.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
British actor
On my professional stage debut, I heard my drama tutor moan, “Oh no” from the rear stalls as soon as I appeared.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2022
“You’re not in Busted any more.” I successfully auditioned to be in Busted and then a couple of days later I got a phone call to say that I was no longer needed as they were going to keep…
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
None! We shouldn’t shame people for not having read “the greats”. There are always new greats emerging that may feel more relevant to our life experience, particularly female writers.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
I used to give a fantastic talk about Frankenstein and Dracula, but I’ve never been able to finish either book.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
Nineteen Eighty-Four. I always meant to read it before 1984, and once 1984 had passed I didn’t see the point.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
How close have you come to death?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
I had one experience on the ice-fall with Tenzing.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement
English actor
I made a solo attempt at the Matterhorn in 1996 and came very close to falling.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
English musician and actor
In 1995, I discovered I had two brain tumours. The process of having them removed went on for about three years.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2018
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1211
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 47
- Sport 109
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
- Values & belief 13
- Change of mind 1
- Failure & regret 9
- Craft & work 36
- Money & investment 4
- Taste & recommendation 6
- Relationships 5
- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →A.J. Jacobs, Adam Peaty, Alan Arkin, Alexa Chung, Bill Nye, Bill Sellanga, Bong Joon-ho, Bruce Dickinson, Carlos Slim Helú, Carrie Brownstein, Chris Addison, Circuit des Yeux, Danny Cipriani, Elinor Ostrom, Erin O'Connor, Giovanna Fletcher, Haile Gebrselassie, Hayley Mills, Helen Mirren, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Herschel Walker, Jeremy Sorese, Jimi Tenor, Joan Bakewell, Joanne Froggatt, John M. Martinis, June Brown, Keith Black, Layli Long Soldier, Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D., László Krasznahorkai, Michelle Collins, Paul Merson, Philip Gould, Philippa Perry, Rob Delaney, Sumayya Vally, Tom Stoppard, Tom Wolfe, Wayne Koestenbaum
Answers that stay at one address
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
- People
- 1,679
- Answers
- 8,170
- Questions
- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.