Leelee Kimmel
American actress and artist
I really admire Meryl Streep. I am a very big Bette Davis fan. And I like Anjelica Huston, who also directs.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What role should instinct play in major decisions?
Craft & work
Question
What inspires you to learn?
Attention & the world
Question
What have you come to understand about what it means to be human?
Values & belief
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The inventor of the modern zarf. “Zarf” is the name of the cardboard sleeve that goes around your coffee cup and keeps your fingers from getting burnt. I love the little masterpieces all around us that we take for granted. By the way, zarfs have a long history — there were gold and tortoise shell zarfs back in ancient China. But the modern zarf was created in 1992 in Portland by Jay Sorensen. It’s called the Java Jacket. Thanks Jay!
Naomi Imatome-Yun, Blue Zones interview, November 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
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Steffi Graf
German tennis player
The man I know the best: Andre.
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.
Jimmy Carter. Michelle Obama. Barack Obama. Geoffrey Canada. Tank Man. Marian Wright Edelman. Madeleine Albright. King Abdullah II of Jordan. Norman Lear. Malala Yousafzai. Beyoncé Knowles.
More from A.J. Jacobs
View profile →Saying something dumb on Twitter and getting yelled at by thousands of strangers. Also, catastrophic climate change.
That is a lesson I try to take to real life. What is the real problem? Don’t just dive in and start trying to go with your first instinct. Step back and say, ‘What am I really trying to accomplish here?’
To me, part of what I love about puzzles is that they fuel my curiosity and I’d say curiosity and gratitude are my two favorite virtues. My last book was about gratitude; this book is all about curiosity. Curiosity is what drives puzzlers. They’re like, ‘Why is it? What is it?’
I think part of the meaning of life is actually the search for the meaning of life. That may sound glib, but I truly believe it. Curiosity and looking for the meaning—even if we never find it—is the meaning.
Well, I’m in the midst of writing 1,000 handwritten, personalized thank you notes to readers of my books. It’s simultaneously a major pain in the butt — it’s taking me several weeks — and also delightful. I feel like I’m getting to know the readers of my books, which is great, since writers often have a solitary existence.
I was the answer to one across in the Dec. 26, 2017, New York Times crossword puzzle.
More on values & belief
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- What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong? 88 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 36 answers
- What important truth do very few people agree with you on? 34 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 29 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 21 answers
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Jonathan Safran Foer, Jane Asher, Rebecca Front, Maggie O'Farrell, Joshua Ferris, Bill Bryson
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