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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Jim Kerr Scottish singer and songwriter

I have a mild fear of not being appreciative enough for the luck that has come my way. That’s about it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 October 2022 source ↗

Patti LuPone

Falling onstage…or anywhere.

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

Don Rickles

My greatest fear is going out onstage and having the audience just stare at me.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2017 source ↗

Dolly Parton American singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman

Flipping my wig.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2012 source ↗

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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 ↗

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 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 ↗

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