How doesn’t matter—it’s when that matters. When I’m ready!
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 24 June 2014 source ↗
The question
What kind of death would you consider a good one?Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
A fixed final question in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire, repeated verbatim across respondent pages.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 43 →
Henry Marsh
Neurosurgeon and writer
Sufficiently well to see Johnson and Truss and then two or three days later, she’s dead. I thought, that’s fantastic. That’s something to celebrate. That’s a great death.
Danielle Steel
Novelist
Peacefully, in good physical health, sound of mind, still active, at a great age, with my children around me.
Eugene Levy
Actor and writer
In my sleep. In bed. With a half-eaten egg salad sandwich on my chest.
Alice Waters
Chef, restaurateur and food activist
Peacefully, knowing I’ll be composted in a mushroom suit.
More from Willem Dafoe
View profile →A crippling accident.
Discovering Rome on my scooter with my wife when we first met.
Punctuality (outside of work, of course).
Bob Dylan: his great gift as a poet and musician, his long, incorruptible career—and he continues to tour constantly.
More on death & what remains
- How would you want people to remember you? 213 answers
- How close have you come to dying? 209 answers
- What song would you want played at your funeral? 178 answers
- If you had only one day left, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid? 54 answers
- What do you believe happens when we die? 50 answers
- What would you most want to leave your children? 44 answers
Also answered this
Neil Patrick Harris, Diane Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Fry, Dolly Parton
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- All death & what remains questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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