Tuppence Middleton: 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.

Tuppence Middleton

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Endless vomiting. That comes from my emetophobia, which is a huge part of my OCD.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 May 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Zadie Smith Novelist and essayist

Violent death. Death generally.

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

Penny Lancaster

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.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗

Jean Smart

Losing a loved one.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, May 2024 source ↗

David Chang

Figuratively doing nothing.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2019 source ↗