Yo-Yo Ma
Cellist
Those times when I feel equilibrium, maximum consciousness, and clarity.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
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.
A glass of wine, a good dinner with my husband, and a day ahead of me without a deadline is close enough.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2012 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 158 →
Gloria Steinem
Writer and feminist organiser
I’m walking down a street in New York, the sun is shining, I’m on my way to see friends who are chosen family—and I’ve just written a couple of pages that I like.
Gayle King
Broadcaster
Close friends, spectacular food, gorgeous weather, and interesting conversation!
A verdant landscape filled with beautiful animals of all kinds, harp music, cumulus clouds in a bright-blue sky, and happy people conversing pleasantly, sipping cold sake from homemade bamboo cups.
More from Terry Gross
View profile →The inability to stop talking about themselves when they’re not being interviewed.
Living with severe chronic pain, or forgetting the name of the person I’m interviewing.
Swiftly, painlessly, and old.
Their willingness to put up with my endless explanations about why I can’t see them because I’m under deadline.
More on identity & self
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- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 195 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 111 answers
- What are you most proud of? 103 answers
Also answered this
Alfred Molina, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, Carly Simon, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jane Birkin
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject