To overcook that plate of fettuccine.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
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.
It was reading out loud, but no longer. (I am dyslexic.) I was encouraged by my husband to do a speech for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which helped me gain my confidence, and the fear disappeared.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →
Michael Flatley
American step dancer
On my deathbed thinking I wish I would have done something that I didn’t do.
Not being loved.
Getting to the end and thinking that I haven’t laughed enough.
More from Penny Lancaster
View profile →Clearing up someone’s sick – it was on police duty.
Trusting someone and being let down.
I’m a bit of a hoarder.
Less time on my phone.
Honest, empathetic, daring.
In a different sense, I’ve helped to try to resuscitate a dead man.
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- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 195 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 111 answers
- What are you most proud of? 103 answers
Also answered this
Laurie Metcalf, Takashi Murakami, Tuppence Middleton, Harlan Coben, Jean Smart, Toby Stephens
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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