I’m walking down the street angrily muttering to myself and then I run into a neighbor or former coworker and they catch me in this moment of private-public expression. It’s nice to be seen sometimes.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Daily life
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
Craft & work
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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Reading quietly, in high grass, among loved ones (who are also quietly reading). Followed by a boozy lunch.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 4 November 2016 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 158 →Warm chocolate cake, a gorgeous fire, and Idris Elba. Also, world peace.
Gloria Steinem
Writer and feminist organiser
I’m walking down a street in New York, the sun is shining, I’m on my way to see friends who are chosen family—and I’ve just written a couple of pages that I like.
Megan Rapinoe
United States international footballer, 2006–2023
“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” —Emma Lazarus. Perfect happiness exists only in my imagination at the moment.
More from Zadie Smith
View profile →Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
Oblivious to the event or on the brink of a genuine religious conversion.
I feel almost certain I don't know them. It would be one of these types who dedicate their lives to the welfare of others, whereas the people I tend to know are people making stories out of the dramas of themselves.
Narcissism, solipsism.
Violent death. Death generally.
Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
More on identity & self
- What is your greatest fear? 255 answers
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 192 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 110 answers
- What are you most proud of? 100 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Danielle Steel, Elmore Leonard, Eugene Levy, George Saunders, Joyce Carol Oates, Judy Blume
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject