My inability to have a long-term intimate relationship.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2009
One question · 6 of 57 answers to it
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
Verbatim recurring item in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I would be a better, faster, and more faithful writer of letters and e-mails, and returner of phone calls.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2017
I would talk slower. When I hear myself interviewed sometimes it sounds like I’m running an auction.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2014
Writer and philosopher; founder of The School of Life
I'd grow more hair and try to be less mortal.
Recorded · The Independent · 2009
I would just be content with every moment as it is instead of gnashing my teeth trying to change things all the time.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2024
Staff writer at The New Yorker; essayist
You have to discipline your mind and your heart and not to be unduly nostalgic about those losses.
Recorded · The Creative Independent · 2018
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.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
British actor and comedian
Nothing – haven’t you heard of the butterfly effect? I could find myself still collecting glasses in Charnock Richard while Donald Sutherland would be enjoying my life.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2019
British and American actress
I would have stopped making records after They Don’t Know.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
English broadcaster and writer
I wouldn’t marry anybody until I met Anna.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2022
What are you most proud of?
Originally asked
Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions
Vogue's 73 Questions repeatedly asks respondents to select the work, relationship, or achievement that makes them proudest.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Colombian chef; founder of the Bogotá restaurant Leo and World's Best Female Chef 2022
Getting Colombia to be recognized for its gastronomy, to have the eyes of the world on our cooking, is a great achievement that I am very proud of today.
Recorded · The Talks · 2024
Norwegian former ski jumper and campaigner for women's ski jumping
What I’m most proud of in my ski jumping career is that I helped the sport to get where it is today, with the World Cup, World Championship and the Olympics.
Recorded · Olympics.com (International Olympic Committee) · 2016
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
proud of recognizing that as a scientist, it was not only important to do research and find new things. I also felt a responsibility to apply them for the benefit of society.
Recorded · Chemical & Engineering News · 2013
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Originally asked
Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions
A repeated rapid-fire prompt in Vogue's 73 Questions, verified in separate English- and Korean-language episodes.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
My father tried to make me think twice. "Son, calm down," he said. "Stick it out."
Recorded · KKR · 2024
Physician and medical anthropologist; co-founder of Partners In Health
I had lots of teachers encourage me. And I still know some of them, my high school teachers. But one of them encouraged me.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2009
New Zealand actor
I spent years trying to work out the secret of acting. I read all the books by the great teachers and got nowhere. They were so busy making it sound complex. I just couldn’t figure it out.
Recorded · WhatsOnStage · 2008
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 →Adam Clayton, Adrian Scarborough, Ai Weiwei, Al Franken, Andi Oliver, Andrew W.K., Bella Freud, Bill Gurley, Carl Barât, Cathy Rigby, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Bryant, Chun Lee-kyung, David Heinemeier Hansson, Don Rickles, Eddie Glaude Jr., Esther Rantzen, Harry Enfield, Isabelle Huppert, James Earl Jones, John Cleese, Joyce Carol Oates, Karamo Brown, Katalin Karikó, Kate Humble, Keith Black, Laura Parnes, Lauren Bacall, Liev Schreiber, Marie Kondo, Mikhail Gorbachev, Myra Strober, Paterson Joseph, Patti LuPone, Pete Postlethwaite, Pete Rozelle, Roger McGough, Tom Warrior, Viggo Mortensen, Warren Buffett
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
- 8,216
- 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.