George Takei: What does happiness look like for you when life is going well?

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.

George Takei

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I don’t know about perfect, but a creamy scoop of green-tea ice cream comes fairly close.

The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 30 October 2015 source ↗

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Damian Lewis

Party, good friends, lots of dancing.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 16 March 2017 source ↗

Isaac Mizrahi

I’ve discovered that I have no happiness other than my dogs’. If they’re happy, I’m happy. That sounds like something my mother used to say about her children, which I always thought was slightly manipulative and way overstated. I was wrong.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 5 April 2022 source ↗

Christine Baranski

At sunset or under the stars on the dock of our lake house just being with my family and pals.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 June 2013 source ↗

Mariska Hargitay

My family. Together in a room with a sax, a piano, and a Ping-Pong table.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 19 January 2024 source ↗

More from George Takei

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Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

There’s no point living at my age with many ingrained great fears. Though I do have that dream that I walk out onto the stage nude. Does that count?

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2015 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

Pope Francis, who left the Vatican to wash the feet of non-believers.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2015 source ↗

Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

After the war, when I was about nine, we were held up in our home. The robbers grabbed my father and had a gun at his throat. It was terrifying. My mother got a wad of money and gave it to the people, and they ran away.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 November 2019 source ↗

Question What song would you want played at your funeral? Death & what remains

Barbra Streisand’s Evergreen from A Star Is Born or You’ll Never Walk Alone from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 November 2019 source ↗

Question What trait do you most dislike in other people? Values & belief

Impatience and temper. Enough already!

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2015 source ↗

Question Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought? Money & investment

I went overboard on the money I invested in the production of Allegiance. It did not return, but it was fulfilling that I was able to tell a story that’s dear.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 November 2019 source ↗

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