Hugh Skinner: What do you fear most? — FLAPSS

The question

What do you fear most?

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.

HS

Hugh Skinner

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Pigeons. One got stuck in my flat once for quite a long time and it really changed how I feel about them.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Charles Dance British actor

Never working again.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 November 2024 source ↗

Kathy Lette Australian-British author

My own books being discounted. Oh, and sharks. The reason we Aussies swim so fast is because something much bigger is always trying to eat us.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 June 2024 source ↗

Rita Wilson American actress, singer, and producer

Losing my memory. My mom had Alzheimer’s disease, and I never ever want to have that decline.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 April 2023 source ↗

Being unprepared.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2011 source ↗

More from Hugh Skinner

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Question What do you believe happens when we die? Death & what remains

I think we’re definitely gone, but I do think people leave traces everywhere from what they did in life, and live on and continue to make an impact through the ripple effect of that.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Question If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change? Failure & regret

I’d be happier being myself younger.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Question What thought won't let you sleep? Daily life

People singing in the street.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Question What lesson has mattered most in your life? Time & hindsight

Everything’s temporary, and how to make aioli.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Question What disappointment has stayed with you longest? Failure & regret

In the back of my mind I just assumed I’d be in a boyband at some point.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

I’m not interested.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗

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