Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2016 source ↗
Dying just a millisecond before I was about to say something I really wanted the people I love to hear.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2020 source ↗
To be eaten by a shark.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 October 2024 source ↗
Heights. I love being high, but I don’t like being up high.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2022 source ↗
I’m most afraid that someday I’m going to be on an airplane and it’s going to be acting the way I don’t want it to.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2015 source ↗
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.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2016 source ↗
Narcissism, solipsism.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, November 2016 source ↗
Reading quietly, in high grass, among loved ones (who are also quietly reading). Followed by a boozy lunch.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 4 November 2016 source ↗
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗
Oblivious to the event or on the brink of a genuine religious conversion.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 4 November 2016 source ↗
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.
Recorded The Guardian Review, 20 February 2010 source ↗
Ai Weiwei, Alan Arkin, Alfred Molina, Alison Steadman, Allison Janney, Ally McCoist
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