Warm chocolate cake, a gorgeous fire, and Idris Elba. Also, world peace.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
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.
To be wildly, desperately, carelessly, nakedly in love, of course. Crazy, obsessive love: brooding, baying at the moon, writing daily missives to the adored. Who wouldn’t want this? Even though the crash is painful.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2009 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 158 →A free day anywhere with a good dog.
Finally, a happy marriage, of now 39 years!
Being at home, watching a good movie with my husband. Dining out with good friends.
More from Garrison Keillor
View profile →My president, a heroic figure—also good- humored, pretty smart, elegant; and if the rest of the world thinks he typifies America, I don’t mind at all.
The night my daughter was born, New York, December 29, 1997. After she emerged and I held her in the palm of my hand, I walked around Manhattan in a stupor of happiness.
Self-denigration, an old strategy for extorting praise from people. (“I am a terrible person.” “No, you’re a wonderful person and we all love you.”)
That this is all there is, and there is no more.
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
Sally Mann, Patrick Stewart, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry, Brooke Shields, Christine Baranski
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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