A picnic in my garden in Kerdalo, Brittany.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Time & hindsight
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
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.
Clarity when I am writing.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 24 July 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 161 →
Danielle Steel
Novelist
Healthy, happy children. A wonderful, loving partner with whom to share my life.
Being with my family and kids, on an island, eating and drinking.
Being in love while organizing my closet.
More from Patti Smith
View profile →Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned about doing good work and protect your work. […] Protect your work and if you build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.
Recorded
Christian Lund, Louisiana Literature festival, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 24 August 2012, Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 24 August 2012
source ↗
Tramping through the woods in South Jersey in 1957 with my dog Bambi.
The artist Gerhard Richter.
I would love to have a better sense of physical balance.
Collapse of the imagination.
More on identity & self
- What is your greatest fear? 266 answers
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 252 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 204 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 114 answers
- What are you most proud of? 109 answers
Also answered this
Kazuo Ishiguro, Eugene Levy, Judy Blume, Stephen Fry, David Lynch, David Hare
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- All identity & self questions
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