John Malkovich
American actor
That the Proust Questionnaire will continue to be used by lazy, overworked journalists for another century or so (since you asked …).
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
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.
Heights, and not getting along with people.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 September 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →
Ina Garten
Cookery writer and shop owner
Pain. I told Jeffrey that if I have a really bad headache just pull the plug.
Eugene Levy
Actor and writer
Being on a Broadway stage and forgetting what the play is.
Maureen O'Hara
Irish and American actress and singer
Not getting into heaven.
More from Hamza Yassin
View profile →My last dance with Jowita, my dance partner. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster; she’s taught me so much about myself and I grew as a result. I’m more confident, more understanding, more respectful, more attuned with myself and others, more mentally strong.
Being about nine metres away from a polar bear. In northern Canada, a young polar bear was very intrigued by our food. I was flying the drone at the time and the polar bear looked up and started paying attention, so then we flew the drone further away and he followed it while we got into our vehicles.
Natural, caring, thoughtful.
Stress, love, people not understanding me, me not understanding people.
That life is tough and unfair; that life is beautiful.
Hurtful, hard, like concrete but also the soft, silky, smooth, cool pillow that you lay your head on. It’s like birds singing in the morning with the aurora going over your head at night. That’s love for me.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 195 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 111 answers
- What are you most proud of? 103 answers
Also answered this
Tim Peake, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Charles Dance, Rose Tremain, Roger Ebert, Michael Cunningham
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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