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The question

What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

HJ
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Well, I’m happiest on Martha’s Vineyard, between July 1 and Labor Day, riding my tricycle with Larry Bobo every afternoon and fishing with Buddy Vanderhoop. But I was happiest from my childhood through high school in Piedmont, West Virginia; it was magical. I was sorry when it was time to go off to college.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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January 15, 1991. Walking up Congress Avenue in Austin, with thousands of others, to see Mom sworn in as governor of Texas.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2018 source ↗
Gemma Whelan English actress
When I was 15, I went to a rugby match at Twickenham with my dad and we went back to his friend Hugh’s house and Hugh made me a perfect cup of tea. I just remember feeling really happy because it was such a brilliant day and I loved being with my dad.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 January 2020 source ↗
Mischa Barton British and American actress
When I got my dogs, Charlie and Ziggy Stardust. One is a pomeranian mix and the other is a rescue mutt, and, oh my God, he's so cute.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 June 2007 source ↗

More from Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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Question What do you fear most? Identity & self
That we will be remembered as a people who locked our fellow citizens in cages and who believe that some people are rich and some people are poor because “it’s their nature” and that racism and poverty are inevitable parts of the order of things; that M.L.K. and Bobby Kennedy died in vain; and that no one any longer believes what M.L.K. said in his Nobel Prize address in Oslo: “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2019 source ↗
Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self
Late one Sunday afternoon, my three-year-old granddaughter, out of the blue, took my hand and said she wanted to whisper something to me. Could we go for a ride around the block before we all sat down for dinner? Just the two of us? Holding hands as we walked to and from the car in the driveway: Bliss.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 28 March 2019 source ↗

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