Tramping through the woods in South Jersey in 1957 with my dog Bambi.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, July 2024 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 577 →
Chris Addison
Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and director
It would be a bad sign if I had a definite answer to that, wouldn't it?
Joely Richardson
British actress
At work, my happiest moments are between “action” and “cut”. I am also very happy when justice is done, and when camping.
James McAvoy
Scottish actor
When I was 15 or 16 - I slept really well then. Now I sleep on a bed of anxiety-tipped nails.
Richard Feynman
Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
It's made me a very happy man ever since.
More from Patti Smith
View profile →Collapse of the imagination.
I would love to have a better sense of physical balance.
Clarity when I am writing.
Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned about doing good work and protect your work. […] Protect your work and if you build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.
Recorded
Christian Lund, Louisiana Literature festival, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 24 August 2012, Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 24 August 2012
source ↗
The artist Gerhard Richter.
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