Michael Cunningham: 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.

Michael Cunningham

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

The fact that, until recently, “the end of the world” would have seemed pretentious and evasive, and now seems like the only possible answer.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2023 source ↗

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Tom Ford

Couples who have to be sat side by side at L.A. dinner parties. What is that all about?!

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2020 source ↗

Audra McDonald Singer and actor

Balloons. I have a big phobia of balloons. Big.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2023 source ↗

Ernest Borgnine

Having gone through the depression of ’29, I’d hate to see the U.S. hit bottom and not come back!

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2011 source ↗

Rafael Nadal Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024

I don’t think I have one in particular. I am pretty calm. Just some small things that I better not comment on :-).

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2010 source ↗

More from Michael Cunningham

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Question Which quality in your friends matters most to you? Relationships

Forbearance with my chronic tardiness.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 22 November 2023 source ↗

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

I’m chronically late. It’s magical thinking: I actually believe I can take a shower and get dressed in three minutes, that the train will be pulling into the station the moment I arrive….

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2023 source ↗

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

The very idea of perfect happiness. Who wouldn’t be happy about the proposition that happiness can be perfect?

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 22 November 2023 source ↗

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