Losing my mind.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What role should instinct play in major decisions?
Craft & work
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Time & hindsight
Question
Who helps you get things done?
Craft & work
Question
Which teacher, parent, coach or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them?
Relationships
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.
The greatest fear I always had in the jobs I was in was that some son of a bitch I never knew or met was going to screw up, and I was going to get blamed for it. [laughs]
William J. Antholis, Presidential Oral Histories, Miller Center, 30 September 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 266 →
Dolly Parton
American singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman
Flipping my wig.
Bryn Terfel
Welsh bass-baritone singer
I’ve been a strong advocate that all my five children should be great swimmers, so you can deduce what my fear is.
Ina Garten
Cookery writer and shop owner
Pain. I told Jeffrey that if I have a really bad headache just pull the plug.
More from Leon Panetta
View profile →Love of family is something that is renewed in me every time I see them.
Now, part of that is the Jesuits at Santa Clara, who taught me about right and wrong. But part of it was just that gut feeling.
The toughest job I had as secretary was having to take the time, usually late at night, to write notes to the families of those who lost loved ones.
And I never forgot what he said, Bill Clinton. He looked at me, and he said, “You know, Leon, you can be the greatest OMB director in the history of the world, but nobody’s going to remember you if the White House has fallen apart!” I never forgot that.
there was no way I could have accomplished the bin Laden operation without the help of Special Forces
Italians are romantics, and my mother taught me the value of beauty and the appreciation for life.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 252 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 204 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 161 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 114 answers
- What are you most proud of? 109 answers
Also answered this
Charles Osgood, Gloria Steinem, Bob Schieffer, Keir Starmer, Caroline Lucas, Monica Lewinsky
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject