Losing one of my children, as there is no greater loss.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
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.
Going back to addiction.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →Still nuclear annihilation.
Robert Glenister
English actor
Premature demise.
The death of my loved ones.
More from Paul Merson
View profile →Walsall fans. I wanted to be a good manager but I was really bad with drink and gambling at the time. I should have done better.
Nothing, because it’s up to me how I feel. I’ve been a millionaire three times and I still wanted to kill myself.
Thirty-odd years ago I bought a black pinstripe suit which I thought was £900. But when I went to pay that was just the jacket – the trousers and waistcoat were extra. I didn’t have the balls to put anything back. I dread to think how much it cost me in the end.
On holiday in Orlando with my wife, Kate, and kids just before lockdown. I wasn’t drinking or gambling. I was so happy, so at peace with myself – I’d been searching for that for many a year.
When you jump out of addiction and look back, things like drink-driving and sitting in crack houses are not good.
For me, love is working through things when it’s not going well.
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