The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?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.
Speaking negatively to myself.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 August 2026 source ↗
I dislike my relationship with food. I wish I didn’t love food so much.
My problem with clothes. I’ve got an issue, haven’t I? I’m not a fella in a band who can turn up in his T-shirt and jeans. I’ve got the whole drama of what I’m going to wear: the hair, the makeup. All that preening and pruning that adds to the stress. I have begun to hate that perfectionist in me.
I interrupt too much.
My bottomless pit of need. Soft erections. It was hard to keep it to just two.
I’ve never read any Salman Rushdie.
I would become fitter younger. Because I would have been hotter younger!
When I concentrate, I put my thumb in my mouth. I once did it during a really important meeting when asked a question I didn’t know the answer to. When I left the meeting my friend said: “What did you put your thumb in your mouth for?” I didn’t know I’d done it.
When I was in my 20s, I had an uncle who took his own life. I would like a second chance to say: “Hang in there.” My parents were living abroad, and me and my sister were just too young to notice the flags.
A mix – safety to be yourself, acceptance, a feeling of peace and reliance, but also challenge, whether that’s intellectual or emotional.
How much my son loves me, particularly considering I’ve had a huge career.
Michelle Collins, Dawn O’Porter, Frank Bowling, Guz Khan, Cyndi Lauper, Chaka Khan
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