Maggie O'Farrell
Irish-British novelist
Interrupting or talking over people. As a stammerer, I am particularly alert to this.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Making people smaller than they are because of something they can’t handle in themselves.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 202 →Coldness, selfishness.
People who are proud of their ignorance.
Joseph Fiennes
English actor
Picking their nose and eating it.
More from Andrew O’Hagan
View profile →Somebody once told me I was the spitting image of David Cameron.
Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
My first holy communion, where my trousers were too big for me and fell down, a circumstance which earned me both the instant contempt of the girls and the heightened interest of the priests. That’s just how it was in 1975.
My interest in Los Angeles.
I can’t say it.
As a good friend.
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