Ricky Gervais: Which quality in your friends matters most to you?

The question

Which quality in your friends matters most to you?

Originally asked

Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire

A fixed Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire item asked across its three-decade archive, with independent variants in friendship and profile interviews.

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

Ricky Gervais

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

It’s hard to narrow it down, because I want them to have a bit of everything—humor, kindness, integrity, intelligence, tolerance (they need lots of that). But if I had to choose just one it would probably be loyalty.

The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 10 August 2017 source ↗

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Jodie Foster

Deep and complex thoughts delivered with a wicked sense of humor.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 23 February 2024 source ↗

Henry Winkler

Being able to share a confidence.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 13 August 2018 source ↗

Judy Blume Novelist

I love that my true friends don’t think of me as that Judy, but as the Judy they’ve known for years, a woman, like them. And I love their senses of humor.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 28 April 2023 source ↗

David Hyde Pierce

Humor, perspective, and selective honesty.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 3 April 2017 source ↗

More from Ricky Gervais

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Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

Playing with a dog. And we’re both drunk.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 10 August 2017 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

I can't remember a time when I was happier than now, to be honest – though that's always been the case.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2014 source ↗

Question What most recently moved you to tears? Identity & self

Over a YouTube clip about animals. "Laboratory animals see sunlight for the first time", or "elephant mourns his best friend the goat". I watch something like that every day and I'm always in pieces.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2014 source ↗

Question What one change would most improve the quality of your daily life? Daily life

A dog. (I don't have one because we're back and forth over the Atlantic and it would be cruel to leave it.)

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2014 source ↗

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