My college years, when everything was possible and I felt physically invulnerable.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2020 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?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.
Others on this question
View all 577 →
Terry Gilliam
American-born British filmmaker
Lost in a piece of music.
Anita Rani
British broadcaster and journalist
The day I passed my driving test, at 17.
George Michael
English singer-songwriter
When I'm in love.
The 60s at the University of California at Santa Barbara weren’t bad.
More from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
View profile →Loyalty. Not fawning, but a loyalty based on our shared love and history that fosters compassion and forgiveness.
Dishonesty. It destroys relationships. It’s something celebrities especially have to guard against because people are prone to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.
Laziness. After 30 years of being a disciplined athlete with an intensely tight schedule, I still can’t forgive myself for letting things slide.
I had self doubts when I was a freshman in high school. I was 14 years old and not very mature, and there were a few incidents in my freshman year. I learned in a very competitive environment. The high school environment that I played in was very intense, and I learned how to be stoic and go out and compete.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, 1 January 1989
source ↗
Barack Obama has shown us how to be a politician guided by intelligence, integrity, and compassion.
Being surrounded by my friends and family. Just listening to them interacting, laughing, sharing. It is the culmination of everything I could have hoped for.
More on time & hindsight
- What lesson has mattered most in your life? 138 answers
- What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What worries you about getting older? 61 answers
- What counsel has proved most valuable to you? 28 answers
- If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Laura Kenny, Boris Becker, Shaun White, Max Whitlock, Steffi Graf, Gabby Logan
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject