Right now: Summer. Dusk. On my couch watching Australian Open tennis with my kids and dog. Doors wide open to a beautiful body of water. The first star of the night just appeared in the sky. Life is magical.
When were you happiest?
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
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 577 →
Florence Welch
British singer
Either pottering around on my own or performing, so I don’t know what kind of person that makes me.
Mornings. Playing music, fresh coffee, dippy eggs and soldiers, my girlfriend – what’s not to love?
Martin Clunes
English actor
On childhood family holidays in Mallorca, with my mum, dad and sister, Amanda.
More from George Saunders
View profile →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 !
I’d like to have a more generous, less anxious mind.
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