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The question

What fills you with the most pride?

Originally asked

Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions

Vogue's 73 Questions repeatedly asks respondents to select the work, relationship, or achievement that makes them proudest.

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

Wynton Marsalis

Trumpeter and composer; artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I’m the most proud when I get something from cities, or people. At first I was against awards, you know. I would always say, “This is so fake. The people who vote on this stuff, they never listen to the music.” But for me it’s when I received awards or something from the city. Just to go to somebody’s house and eat. Or people come and say, “We spent our anniversary checking you out,” or “We were making love to one of your records, and we had a child!” See that kind of stuff makes me feel good. Like you get a key to the city and the people are really into it. Not just, “Oh, let’s give him the key to the city because he got some publicity.” It will be some people you knew, and you were there at their school, and you worked in the community.

Academy of Achievement interview, New York, New York, 8 January 1991 source ↗

Others on this question

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Nicolaas Bloembergen Physicist; Nobel laureate in physics for work in laser spectroscopy
I’ve been lucky that the two topics that have interested me have both lead to very important applications. In the case of nuclear magnetic resonance, the thesis data, in my thesis, concerned what is called nuclear magnetic relaxation in liquids and also some solid materials, but most importantly we measured the relaxation time of protons in water and aqueous solutions, the influence of viscosity and temperature, and those data are now the basis in which MRI pictures can be taken
Recorded Marika Griehsel, 54th meeting of Nobel Laureates, Lindau, Germany, The Nobel Prize, June 2004 source ↗
Cristina Duarte UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa; former Finance Minister of Cabo Verde
Melissa, to have the opportunity in my life to serve my country for 10 years as Minister of Finance and Planning was the best gift that my life gave to me. I was born under the colonial period. I experienced the independence of my country.
Recorded Melissa Fleming, Awake at Night podcast, series 7, United Nations, 2023 source ↗
Chun Lee-kyung South Korean former short-track speed skater; four-time Olympic champion
I am the only person who has four golds and one bronze in the Olympic Winter Games in Korea. The record will be broken by someone someday, but I think, I've done what I loved and had a pretty good and successful life as an athlete.
Recorded Written Q&A in the IOC's Athlete Role Model series before Lillehammer 2016, Olympics.com (International Olympic Committee), 2016 source ↗
Yogi Berra Baseball catcher and manager; ten-time World Series winner with the New York Yankees
I’m very happy about it. You know, a kid from the Hill being elected to the Hall of Fame. Proud of it.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, New York City, 1 June 2005 source ↗

More from Wynton Marsalis

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Question Which teacher, parent, coach, or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them? Relationships
Well, I am always trying to study, and when I came to New York, I was fortunate enough to meet Stanley Crouch, who is a writer. He had tremendous influence on me intellectually, because he had like a million books in his apartment, and a thousand records. So when I met him and saw all the records and books and stuff, and he didn’t graduate from college either, he just would voraciously read books. Every time I’d see him, he’d be talking about, “Hey, check this book out.” And I didn’t know any of that stuff, and I felt stupid when I was around him. And he knew more about the music than I did. I was 17 or 18, and he’d be saying “Well what about this record?” Him and also Albert Murray, who was Stanley Crouch’s mentor. Albert Murray has written the greatest books on jazz, Stomping the Blues, which is on blues, but it is one of the greatest books written about the poetics of jazz music, what the musician should be trying to do. And from having the opportunity to be around Stanley and Albert Murray, Stanley much more than Albert Murray, because I’m always too embarrassed to be around him, because he knows so much I always feel like I’m just in the way. But it really made me develop my intellectual curiosity, and Al Murray would give me books to read, and tell me where to go, and tell me about an important exhibit in town, “Go check this out.” I talk to Stanley almost every day. We never talk about just anything, it’s always something definite: “Did you check out this new Romare Bearden book that they put out?” He keeps me on a certain level of intellectual engagement. And always understand that you have to constantly work to develop your intellect, and just increase your curiosity.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

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