Thinking that I am less-than. That thinking is cunning, baffling, and insidious, and I must guard against it every hour of every day.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
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.
My tendency to be avoidant.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
English interior designer and television personality
I am crucified by my modesty: it’s terrible.
Self-loathing that rises to the level of deploring.
I’m chronically late. It’s magical thinking: I actually believe I can take a shower and get dressed in three minutes, that the train will be pulling into the station the moment I arrive….
More from Meghann Fahy
View profile →A blood clot in my artery when I was 23.
I had a casting director once stop me in the middle of an audition and tell me to go wash my face in the bathroom because she felt my makeup was too distracting, but I wasn’t wearing any. It was mortifying. It felt like a power play and I was so young, I didn’t know what to do.
I’ve never really had a horrible job – I liked working at restaurants and being a nanny when I wasn’t acting.
In my 20s I was in a show called The Unauthorised Autobiography of Samantha Brown. The actor who played my dad messed up his lines and it made me laugh so hard that I ended up peeing my pants.
Crashing in an aeroplane into an ocean at night.
An inability to be authentic.
More on identity & self
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Christian Louboutin, Denise Welch, Mike Wallace, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Alex Lawther
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