Courtney Pine: Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? — FLAPSS

Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?

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.

Recorded Courtney Pine said elsewhere, not written here

I am not studious enough. I get easily distracted.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 243 →

Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008

Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing.

Recorded Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, The White House (Obama administration archive), 19 May 2013 source ↗

Donatella Versace

My personality.

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

I’m so tempted to answer serial killer.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 February 2025 source ↗

Giovanna Fletcher

My need to be liked.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 February 2024 source ↗

More from Courtney Pine

View profile →

Question When were you happiest? Time & hindsight

When I realised that I could be a musician. I was 16.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

Question Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought? Money & investment

A saxophone for £8,000.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

We were doing a tour in Japan and as our plane landed, it rose again, out of the blue. About 10 years later there was this programme about 10 of the nearest misses, and it was my flight. There was another plane on the runway and we nearly landed on top of it. I didn’t know until 10 years later.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

Question What most recently made you cry? Identity & self

When my new-born daughter Cleopatra died and I wasn’t there. I was doing a US tour and I remember sitting down in an airport and losing it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

Question If you could edit your past, what would you change? Failure & regret

I would have spent more time practising and got a proper lawyer to sort out my first album contract.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗

More on identity & self

Also answered this

Bryn Terfel, Jim Kerr, Audra McDonald, Maureen O'Hara, Bonnie Raitt, Rita Moreno

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

All identity & self questions
The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject

Report this answer