A plane that I’m on plunging into the sea. Aside from that, pigeons.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
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.
Clothes moths (and the imminent threat of world war three).
The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 285 →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.
I’m a very fearless person.
Akio Toyoda
President of Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009–2023; chairman from 2023
Everybody is shifting to BEVs, this is the biggest fear for me. Three or four years ago, I was the only one to say to the media that I love smell, I love sound and I love engines, and I want to keep the jobs for engine suppliers.…But it seems to me that I’m the only one. I feel very alone.
More from Dawn O’Porter
View profile →My Auntie Jane. She took me in, aged 10, and, after my mother died, healed my broken heart by filling our dining room with food and people. Still cooking at the grand old age of 89. My icon.
My Siamese cat, which I had freeze-dried after she died. I really think their future partners will like it.
A drunk woman who threw epic dinner parties.
So far, getting older has made almost everything better.
When they ruin my story because they think theirs is better, so butt in before I’ve finished mine.
Hungry, hard-working, cats.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 262 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 231 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 195 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 167 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 121 answers
- What are you most proud of? 119 answers
Also answered this
Michelle Collins, Anjelica Huston, Marcus Brigstocke, Stanley Tucci, Ai Weiwei, Philippa Dunne
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- All identity & self questions
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