I can’t cook. I use my smoke alarm as a timer.
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.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2020 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →I’m argumentative.
Biting my nails.
A willingness to go with my gut feeling, rather than wait a day and contemplate other options.
More from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
View profile →My college years, when everything was possible and I felt physically invulnerable.
Being surrounded by my friends and family. Just listening to them interacting, laughing, sharing. It is the culmination of everything I could have hoped for.
Loyalty. Not fawning, but a loyalty based on our shared love and history that fosters compassion and forgiveness.
Dishonesty. It destroys relationships. It’s something celebrities especially have to guard against because people are prone to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.
I had self doubts when I was a freshman in high school. I was 14 years old and not very mature, and there were a few incidents in my freshman year. I learned in a very competitive environment. The high school environment that I played in was very intense, and I learned how to be stoic and go out and compete.
Years ago, before I had my current manager, I was taken advantage of by people I’d trusted with my finances. That’s made me especially sensitive to the prospect of financial ruin. I’m constantly advising young athletes to be vigilant when it comes to whom you trust with your finances.
More on identity & self
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Ronnie O'Sullivan, Cathy Rigby, Ally McCoist, Allison Janney, Erin Doherty, Leona Lewis
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