Pelé: What fills you with the most pride?

The question

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.

Pelé

Brazilian footballer; three-time World Cup winner

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

At that time nobody had Brazil on the map and suddenly Brazil became a huge football nation. I was very proud because I made Brazil well known all over the world.

The Talks interview, 7 August 2013 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 103 →

Bob Woodward Investigative reporter and author; associate editor of The Washington Post

I don’t know whether I feel pride. I think pride is hubris. I think it is an emotion that if you bask in it, it’s like hate; it will destroy you. So I don’t make those kinds of assessments. I like what I do. I am repeatedly struck by how I have missed part of the story, always.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Washington D.C., 1 May 2003 source ↗

Wynton Marsalis Trumpeter and composer; artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center

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.

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

Alan Shepard Naval aviator and astronaut; the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon

If it’s one thing, obviously it had to have been being selected to make the first manned space flight for the United States. That was competition at its best, not because of the fame or the recognition that went with it, but because of the fact that America’s best test pilots went through this selection process, down to seven guys, and of those seven, I was the first one to go. That always will be the most satisfying thing for me.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Houston, Texas, 1 February 1991 source ↗

Andre Geim Condensed matter physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 2010

OK, but speaking seriously, I’m actually quite proud of my IgNobel Prize – not because of IgNobel Prize – it’s a more subtle association. Essentially, yeah, IgNobel Prize is given for something which forces people to smile. ... with IgNobel Prize they ask you a few weeks in advance whether you are ready to accept this prize or not. So we considered hard and, at the end, we had courage to accept this IgNobel Prize, yeah. So, I’m proud that I had enough courage to do that and I do not regret accepting it.

Recorded Adam Smith, Telephone interview following the announcement of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, The Nobel Prize, 5 October 2010 source ↗