The question

What fills you with the most pride?

Originally asked

Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions

Vogue's 73 Questions repeatedly asks respondents to select the work, relationship, or achievement that makes them proudest.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Gertrude B. Elion

Biochemist and pharmacologist; Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I think I’m most proud of the fact that so many of the drugs have really been useful in saving lives. I’ve run into people whose lives have been saved, and the kind of satisfaction that you get from having someone come up and say, “My child had acute leukemia and your drug saved him.” Or, “My little girl had herpes encephalitis, and she is now cured, she is back at school. She is doing very well. People told me that she might be mentally affected, but she is not.” I run into people who have had kidney transplants for 20 years who are still taking the drug. And I don’t think that anything else that happens to you can match that type of satisfaction.

Academy of Achievement interview, San Francisco, California, 6 March 1991 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 103 →
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President of Liberia, 2006–2018
The progress we’ve made at home. For example, our debt issue. We inherited a 3.7 billion debt for our population and our export earnings. Today a majority of that debt has been cancelled and we’ve completed our first program with the IMF (International Monetary Fund). And also the restoration of hope. Today, you know, our image of being a pariah state, a failed state, has turned around completely. Whereas people — Liberians — were afraid to carry a Liberian passport, because you’d be seen as this nation of death and destruction. Today, Liberians are very proud to carry their passport because everybody sees Liberia as beginning to be uplifted and beginning to become a possible model of success, a post-conflict success story. I’m very proud of that turnaround in our image.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 4 July 2008 source ↗
Brendan Rodgers Northern Irish football manager; former manager of Liverpool, Leicester City and Celtic
I think becoming a manager in the first place because my journey was different - the path to becoming a manager. That is the biggest achievement for me.
Recorded Kelly Somers, BBC Sport's The Football Interview, 18 October 2025 source ↗
Daron Acemoglu Economist; Nobel laureate in economic sciences for work on institutions and prosperity
I’m proud of all my heritages, and I’m delighted that I have been able to learn from many different experiences.
Recorded Adam Smith, Telephone interview following the announcement of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, The Nobel Prize, October 2024 source ↗
Yogi Berra Baseball catcher and manager; ten-time World Series winner with the New York Yankees
I’m very happy about it. You know, a kid from the Hill being elected to the Hall of Fame. Proud of it.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, New York City, 1 June 2005 source ↗

More from Gertrude B. Elion

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Question Which teacher, parent, coach, or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them? Relationships
I can’t remember that anyone in particular did. I think perhaps it was my mother who influenced me the most. She was a housewife. She had no higher education, but had the most common sense of anyone I knew, and she wanted me to have a career. So she was always very supportive, at a time when many women of her generation would not have been.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗
Question Which writers or artists have most influenced your work? Taste & recommendation
It was a very important finding for us because we were involved in nucleic acids. There weren’t many people interested in nucleic acids. There weren’t many people who believed that was the way to find drugs. But when we found out the structure, and we began to understand what kind of bases could be incorporated, and which ones couldn’t, and where they could be incorporated, it put a whole new dimension on it. So it had a very significant effect.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, San Francisco, California, 6 March 1991 source ↗

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