Question?

In her new memoir, AUDITION, television journalist Barbara Walters tells the story of how she came upon the most revealing question she has ever asked; "What is the biggest misconception about you?"

Walters recalls first using the question with the opera singer Maria Callas, who had been in love with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Callas did not want to discuss Onassis or his new wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, so instead, Walters asked the singer to address the public's misconceptions.

"And she launched into a big thing about Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy," remembers Walters, who adds that she uses the question to engage her subjects on topics that might otherwise be off limits:

If you ask subjects about the biggest misconceptions about themselves, "very often they will come out with the very thing that people want to know [but that subjects] have not wanted to talk about," Walters says.

(National Public Radio)

What is the biggest misconception about you?

I believe the biggest misconception about me is that I'm hard hearted or cold. I am very much aware of my emotions and sometimes expend great energy keeping them in check. That doesn't make me unfeeling, it makes me guarded.

Comments

[Ali]

That's an interesting question. I guess to answer you would have to know what others think about you, which I purposefully try not to know.