The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?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.
I’m judgmental.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗
My cold indifference towards discarded friends.
Self-denigration, an old strategy for extorting praise from people. (“I am a terrible person.” “No, you’re a wonderful person and we all love you.”)
Avoidance coping.
My competitive side, the one that keeps score.
Strictly. I went into it thinking I would last two weeks!
To Kill a Mockingbird – I was meant to read it for an exam and I didn’t and I cheated. I was allowed to use a laptop to type my answers because I couldn’t see my writing, so I hid an electronic copy of the book on the laptop.
Loud and noisy.
I was thrown out of a club by bouncers when I walked into somebody and told them that I was registered blind. They said: “Don’t give a fuck – you don’t belong in here.” As a straight white man, it gives you a taste of what other people have to contend with.
When I was losing my sight, I couldn’t see where I was going, and I went into an undertaker’s thinking it was a barber’s. I asked the undertaker whether he had many waiting.
A lot of awful gigs. You can’t become a successful comedian without dying on your arse more times than you can remember.
Ronnie O'Sullivan, Jared Harris, Olly Alexander, John Lithgow, Felicity Jones, David Hockney
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