John Waters
American filmmaker
Judgmental without investigation.
Values & belief
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
197 answers answered between 1974 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
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Alison Steadman
British actress
Lack of understanding and tolerance.
Terry Gross
Radio interviewer
The inability to stop talking about themselves when they’re not being interviewed.
Dolly Parton
American singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman
Dishonesty and being late for appointments.
John Malkovich
American actor
The susceptibility to ideology or tribalism.
John Mellencamp
Singer and songwriter
Ungratefulness.
Gayle King
Broadcaster
It’s a toss-up between mean and petty.
Ina Garten
Cookery writer and shop owner
Lying on the sofa watching old episodes of Law & Order all day.
Hans Zimmer
Film composer
To place faith over facts.
Adrian Dunbar
Irish actor
Needless aggression and bullying.
Bryan Adams
Canadian singer-songwriter and musician
People who make you wait around for them.
Matthew Modine
American actor
The inability to negotiate peace and truly forgive.
Kazuo Ishiguro
Novelist and screenwriter; Nobel laureate in Literature, 2017
The urge to be unpleasant to waitstaff in restaurants.
Bruno Tonioli
Italian choreographer
Meanness and lying.
Disrespect. My dad was a toolmaker and worked in a factory all his life, and he felt looked down on, and it really affected him. And so all my life I’ve loathed disrespect and valued respect.
Bullying, flakiness, rudeness, lack of humility, being patronising and ungenerous.
Clive Myrie
British journalist, newsreader, and presenter
Cruelty, bullying, selfishness.
Kathy Lette
Australian-British author
People who pretend to have perfect marriages. Perfect marriages are like orgasms – many of them are faked.
Craig Charles
English actor
Selfishness and cruelty.
Michael Flatley
American step dancer
I always try to see the good. I never look for the bad.
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