A plate of fettuccine ragù with my kids.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
Craft & work
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Daily life
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.
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 ↗
Others on this question
View all 158 →Being with those that I love, and they have no problems.
Under sail somewhere with my children, Mavis and Duncan, and my husband, Roderick, with no agenda.
Eugene Levy
Actor and writer
Devouring an egg salad sandwich with the salt, pepper, and mayo in exactly the right proportion.
More from Zadie Smith
View profile →Oblivious to the event or on the brink of a genuine religious conversion.
Narcissism, solipsism.
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.
Violent death. Death generally.
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.
More on identity & self
- What is your greatest fear? 256 answers
- 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
Stephen Fry, Joyce Carol Oates, Karl Ove Knausgård, Elmore Leonard, Patti Smith, Eugene Levy
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- All identity & self questions
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