The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?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.
Sitting on the fence – I will do anything to avoid confrontation.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 September 2023 source ↗
The way I allow myself to talk to myself.
Outside my very close-knit group of friends, socially I’m terrible.
I don’t think anyone should deplore anything about themselves. You can always improve things, but by deploring you’re putting yourself on a losing streak.
I bore myself constantly.
Other people get sad.
Apathy, either from an audience, the people around me or myself.
It’s not all soft focus and wheat fields. Love songs can be about hate, fear, envy, lust and anger, because that’s part of love as well.
A 28ft motorboat, which sat in the water for two years because I was so busy working.
Carol Vorderman, because she’s stuck her head above the parapet to try to hold our bizarre politicians to account.
Content, assured, indecisive.
Ben Okri, Sofia Coppola, Helena Bonham Carter, Adrian Dunbar, Alex Hassell, Dervla Kirwan
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