Garrison Keillor: 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.

Garrison Keillor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

That this is all there is, and there is no more.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

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Keir Starmer

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.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗

Brooke Shields

Drowning. The feeling of not being able to take a breath. I’m sure my therapist would have something to say about the deep psychological reasons for it.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

David Byrne

I’ll know it when I see it. Hello, Room 101.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2014 source ↗

Jeff Goldblum

Any misfortune involving our kids. Also, I have recurring nightmares that involve being chased by people or being attacked by scary animals.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2026 source ↗

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

To be wildly, desperately, carelessly, nakedly in love, of course. Crazy, obsessive love: brooding, baying at the moon, writing daily missives to the adored. Who wouldn’t want this? Even though the crash is painful.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2009 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

My president, a heroic figure—also good- humored, pretty smart, elegant; and if the rest of the world thinks he typifies America, I don’t mind at all.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

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

Self-denigration, an old strategy for extorting praise from people. (“I am a terrible person.” “No, you’re a wonderful person and we all love you.”)

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

The night my daughter was born, New York, December 29, 1997. After she emerged and I held her in the palm of my hand, I walked around Manhattan in a stupor of happiness.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

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