What is your idea of perfect happiness?
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.
Recorded
David Byrne
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said elsewhere, not written here
Wow, these are big questions! Happiness, as I’ve experienced it and observed it in others, seems to be random—some of us are happy fairly regularly (I am, mostly), and some of us not as much—but there seems to be no clear explanation as to why. It comes and goes at unexpected moments, too. The graph of happiness doesn’t even seem to match what is going on in our lives. Or maybe it does and we don’t know it. Money—is there a connection between money and happiness? It takes away a world of worries and anxieties, but are rich folks all happy? Are you kidding? Donald Trump is ALWAYS scowling. That said, it’s hard to be happy if you don’t know where you’ll sleep or where your next meal is coming from. The pursuit of happiness? Where are we supposed to look? Are there clues hidden somewhere? The very act of searching and striving for it can lead to frustration and unhappiness. I suspect that happiness finds you—I’m not sure you can find a road that leads to it. Happiness is everywhere, though some cultures are, I’ve read, happier overall than others—G.N.P. be damned. Is sunshine one of those things? Are tropical folks generally happier?
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 3 December 2014
source ↗
“Perfect happiness!”—waking in the morning to a clear & benevolent-seeming sky, a view from a window of a beautiful (if overgrown) garden, a cat purring. The excitement of rewriting the previous day’s work, & continuing on from that point energized & hopeful. For a writer, “happiness” isn’t likely to ever be “perfect”—but it is likely to be bound up with the work-in-progress. First drafts tend to be frustrating, exhausting—subsequent drafts sometimes move swiftly, even miraculously. For most adults, “Perfect is the enemy of good”—we learn to appreciate whatever measure of happiness we have, however modest.
Recorded
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 28 November 2018
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A long summer’s evening on the front porch with my wife, Judith, watching the hawks circling overhead and the sun disappearing through the trees.
Recorded
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 July 2011
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A beautiful meal and a glass of wine with my favorite people and lots of laughter ringing around the table.
Recorded
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 3 May 2024
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“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” —Emma Lazarus. Perfect happiness exists only in my imagination at the moment.
Recorded
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 July 2020
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Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Aung San Suu Kyi, Caetano Veloso, Terry and Jo Harvey Allen, Ford Wheeler, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning. My late father.
Recorded
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2014
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Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
I’ll know it when I see it. Hello, Room 101.
Recorded
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2014
source ↗
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