Paula Wilcox: What do you fear most? — FLAPSS

The question

What do you fear most?

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.

PW

Paula Wilcox

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Being run over by a cyclist on a pavement or pedestrian crossing, because it’s nearly happened too frequently.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Heights. I love being high, but I don’t like being up high.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2022 source ↗

Dying alone and in pain.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, May 2024 source ↗

That I will suddenly lose my sense of humor, and everyone knows it but me.

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

Romesh Ranganathan English actor and comedian

My children ending up anything like me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 August 2024 source ↗

More from Paula Wilcox

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Question When did you last change your mind about something important? Change of mind

I’m trying to write my will and I keep changing my mind.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

Question What thought won't let you sleep? Daily life

Anything, because I’m a worrier. Also, if I’m working on a really exciting project, I can be awake like an excited child looking forward to going on holiday.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

Question What worries you about getting older? Time & hindsight

Not to be able to do the things that you take for granted, like running up the tube steps or going somewhere under your own steam.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

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

Complaining about the weather, because there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

We’ve run out of champagne.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

Question What most recently moved you to tears? Identity & self

I cry a lot at films; my mother and I were champion criers at Meet Me in St Louis.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2026 source ↗

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