The question

What does happiness look like for you when life is going well?

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.

T Bone Burnett

Musician and record producer

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Perfection is a second-rate idea. I would guess, however, that perfected happiness would be joy, the most intricate and mercurial of all sensations. The moment one recognizes joy, it flees. I’m not sure where Proust is going with this line of questioning, and I don’t want to be evasive, so I will say my idea of perfect happiness is the end of economics; we grow like flowers and fly like birds; the lion lays down with the lamb—a ridiculous idea.

The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 January 2014 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 158 →
Dustin Hoffman
When the coffee kicks in early in the morning and I’m on the couch with my dogs, reading the paper.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 February 2009 source ↗
Alice Waters Chef, restaurateur and food activist
Shopping at the organic farmers market, buying whatever’s in season that looks the ripest and most vibrant, and bringing it home to cook with my friends.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 28 July 2021 source ↗
Bob Schieffer
Getting hired. With the possible exception of my daughters’ births and my wedding day, the happiest moments of my life were when someone offered me a job.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 8 September 2017 source ↗

More from T Bone Burnett

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Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight
My happiest moment was being in the room when my daughter was born, and seeing her draw her first breath and turn from what looked like gray clay into the deepest, most vibrant, most psychedelic crimson. It was an unforgettable, unimaginable explosion of energy and potential—of promise and pure love.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2014 source ↗

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