Conflict aversion.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
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.
Too high an expectation of others and myself.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 November 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →I overthink everything.
Sally Field
Actor
Overall I’d have to say my earnestness.
Felicity Jones
British actress
Trying to do a million things at once.
More from Nuala McGovern
View profile →Like a very full heart and a flip in my stomach when I see him.
Running out of time.
I lived in New York during 9/11 and worked a couple of blocks away from the twin towers. I was looking when the first tower exploded and then when the second plane flew in and, before we had to evacuate, I did see people jump to their death.
I think we become stars.
Fewer night shifts.
In the Pet Shop Boys song Being Boring they’ve a great line that says “I never dreamed that I would get to be the creature that I always meant to be”. And I feel I am, so that’s great.
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