Reading quietly, in high grass, among loved ones (who are also quietly reading). Followed by a boozy lunch.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 4 November 2016 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 158 →Taking an overnight train in Europe.
Patrick Stewart
Actor
Walking in my garden in England with my wife.
Diane Keaton
Actor and director
A glass of red wine with ice.
Waking up in the morning.
More from Zadie Smith
View profile →Oblivious to the event or on the brink of a genuine religious conversion.
Narcissism, solipsism.
I feel almost certain I don't know them. It would be one of these types who dedicate their lives to the welfare of others, whereas the people I tend to know are people making stories out of the dramas of themselves.
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
Violent death. Death generally.
Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
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Stephen Fry, Karl Ove Knausgård, Joyce Carol Oates, Elmore Leonard, Danielle Steel, Eugene Levy
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