Pain of any sort.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
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.
Not working. I want to be one of those old actors on the set of Casualty at 95, who quietly passes away in the actual scene rather than at home.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 August 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →Failure. I hate losing, particularly at football and politics. I play five-a-side every week – middle of midfield, barking orders. Some people say it’s the taking part that counts. I am not in that camp. It’s the winning that counts.
I fear the arrogance we are all at risk of, the pride that pushes us to put “I” in place of “God”. More prosaically, I fear physical pain because it risks stripping us of our dignity.
I honestly don’t have a particular fear. We must live life without limits, and fear can become a limit.
More from Angela Griffin
View profile →Lee Warburton. He had just left drama school and was doing the Alexander technique in the Corrie green room. I hadn’t been to drama school, and really took the piss out of him.
The fact that there are not enough hours in the day and I’ve taken on too much.
During the first week or two of lockdown. We didn’t know what was coming and it didn’t feel dangerous at that point; there was just a real sense of family and hunkering down.
As somebody who was hardworking, kind and nice.
People who are not self-aware.
A personal assistant.
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