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Identity & self

If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be?

53 answers answered between 2001 and 2025 one of 5 in The Proust Questionnaire

Originally asked

Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire

Verbatim recurring item in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.

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On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

To be taller. I’ve been looking up at certain people all my life. If I was taller, I could look down and see them a lot better.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 25 November 2001 source ↗
Charlie Munger Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023
if your proposed marriage contract has forty-seven pages, my suggestion is you not enter.
Recorded USC Gould School of Law commencement, 2007, Speakola, 2007 source ↗
First of all, I’d like to stop complaining—I’m beginning to annoy myself. I would like to learn to read faster, however. Again, the rest I’ve learned to live with.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 22 February 2010 source ↗
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
I deeply regret not having learned a musical instrument. And I regret not having focused more on Spanish when I was studying it in school. I would love to be able to speak Spanish fluently and play an instrument.
Recorded Barbara Walters, ABC News 20/20, broadcast 23 December 2011, 22 December 2011 source ↗
Aung San Suu Kyi Leader of the National League for Democracy; Nobel Peace Prize laureate; State Counsellor of Myanmar, 2016–2021
Even if we do not achieve perfect peace on earth, because perfect peace is not of this earth, common endeavours to gain peace will unite individuals and nations in trust and friendship and help to make our human community safer and kinder.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 16 June 2012 source ↗
I wish I were braver, although I try. I work too hard and don’t play enough. Too much work ethic, not enough “fun.”
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 26 June 2012 source ↗
To be more outgoing. I love being home, but sometimes I feel guilty that I like it too much.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 13 July 2012 source ↗
I would talk slower. When I hear myself interviewed sometimes it sounds like I’m running an auction.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 April 2014 source ↗
Stephen Fry Actor, writer and broadcaster
My laziness. Not in work-related matters, but social laziness. Thank-you letters, organization, that sort of thing.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 10 June 2015 source ↗
I’d be more patient, which I didn’t consider a virtue until right this moment.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 10 March 2016 source ↗

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