Norman Lear: What do you fear most?

The question

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.

Norman Lear

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

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.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2021 source ↗

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Bill Moyers

Democracy proves to be a Potemkin village and gross inequality becomes our permanent way of life.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, July 2011 source ↗

Miriam Margolyes

To experience the utter powerlessness of locked-in syndrome.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 July 2025 source ↗

Jane Fonda

That we won’t act fast enough to save the planet.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, May 2009 source ↗

Ed Koch

Of choking on some food and having no one nearby to do the Heimlich maneuver.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2013 source ↗

More from Norman Lear

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Question What trait do you most dislike in other people? Values & belief

Dishonesty and insincerity.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2021 source ↗

Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

Waking up in the morning is as perfect as anything gets.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 15 June 2021 source ↗

Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

The rare moment I don’t believe in myself enough.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2021 source ↗

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