Ed Koch: What do you fear most?

The question

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.

Ed Koch

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Of choking on some food and having no one nearby to do the Heimlich maneuver.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2013 source ↗

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Bill Maher

Waking up after a sleepover at John Waters’s house and finding my sleeping bag isn’t zipped up the same way as when I passed out. Or “President Palin.”

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, May 2010 source ↗

Joyce Carol Oates Novelist, short story writer and essayist

Sometimes, it is the possibility of loneliness. Other times, it is the possibility of never being alone, having no privacy, being under the control of another.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2018 source ↗

Sally Field Actor

A bumpy flight … or driving with my son Sam, who drives great, but I still can’t believe he’s old enough.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2016 source ↗

Harlan Coben American author

I don’t even voice them. Perhaps the books are my outlet here.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 August 2024 source ↗

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Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

Sitting in a living room with my sister, Pat Thaler, and her seven grandchildren and just talking with them. They range in age from 9 to 21 years old.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 February 2013 source ↗

Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

A willingness to go with my gut feeling, rather than wait a day and contemplate other options.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2013 source ↗

Question If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be? Identity & self

I would like to be more accepting of the faults of others.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 22 January 2013 source ↗

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