Nadine Gordimer
South African writer
Camping in the bushveld with my man.
When were you happiest?
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Pittsford, New York, writing my first book when our kids were small, riding my bike to work because we only had one car…that feeling of being needed and loved and vitally involved in something artistic that I didn’t fully understand, everything still lying ahead of us.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 576 →
Daniel Clowes
American cartoonist and writer
Probably in the past few years, though maybe it's just some mid-life hormonal surge.
Rachel Whiteread
English artist
When my children arrived.
Bob Hoskins
English actor
When the kids were babies.
More from George Saunders
View profile →I’d like to have a more generous, less anxious mind.
Being aware and accepting of whatever the state of my mind happens to be at the moment (even if that state is unhappy).
Read incorrectly, that sounds like a threat. No thanks, Vanity Fair !
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