I can go for weeks without opening the mail. I can look at a letter that has just dropped through the letterbox, wonder what it is and then just shred it.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
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.
The rare moment I don’t believe in myself enough.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →
Ed Harris
American actor and director
Asking my wife questions that don't need to be asked.
Kathy Lette
Australian-British author
I can’t cook. I use my smoke alarm as a timer.
Carl Barât
English musician
Fear and all of its consequences.
More from Norman Lear
View profile →Waking up in the morning is as perfect as anything gets.
Dishonesty and insincerity.
The greatest fear I can remember is coming back from WW II and being amazed that I was more afraid to audition for a job than I was flying 52 missions.
More on identity & self
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Stephen K Amos, Bryn Terfel, John Grisham, Hamza Yassin, Peter Sarsgaard, Sarah Hadland
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