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 →
Diane Keaton
Actor and director
Like? I have no soft spot, fondness, admiration, respect, attraction, or esteem for death. I am not taken with it or infatuated by it. I carry no torch, have no crush, take no shine to the word or action of death. I don’t have the hots for it, and I don’t dig it, either.
Patrick Stewart
Actor
If needed—a doctor-assisted death.
Hans Zimmer
Film composer
Showing off onstage, with everyone laughing and applauding.
Julie Taymor
Theatre and film director
When I am ready. When I have had enough. When I can no longer give anything. When I can no longer appreciate the small beauties. Without pain or remorse.
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
Diane Keaton, Neil Patrick Harris, Eugene Levy, Robert De Niro, Dolly Parton, Helena Bonham Carter
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All death & what remains questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject