My inability to keep track of personal possessions.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 8 June 2016 source ↗
The question
If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be?Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
Verbatim recurring item in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
My inability to keep track of personal possessions.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 8 June 2016 source ↗
I wish I always had the right word in the right moment at the right time and not two hours later in my car going home.
Convince myself that walking two miles a day isn’t boring.
Procrastinating. I saved answering this questionnaire until the very last minute.
First of all, I’d like to stop complaining—I’m beginning to annoy myself. I would like to learn to read faster, however. Again, the rest I’ve learned to live with.
Those times when I feel equilibrium, maximum consciousness, and clarity.
I love to break rules.
Very large bugs.
But part of practicing to me is actually an active enjoyment. When people ask, “How much do you practice and do you like practice?” Well, I think it’s always getting your mind to go from “I should” to “I want.” It’s like the magic button that only you can locate. When you’re doing the “should” thing, time happens very slowly. Ugh, I’ve been practicing forever! Fifteen minutes. But when you want to do something, an hour has passed. Your control of time depends on whether you should do something or whether you want to do something.
While I’m on stage, you are all my guests, because that’s sort of the unsaid agreement. While you’re my guest, if something bad happens on stage, I often think of Julia Child, “Oh, the chicken’s fallen on the floor! Yes. Oh, well pick it up and put it right back.” And you know what? Everybody’s with you. […] So whatever you practice for on the engineering side that fails is all right, because we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we’re communing together and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It’s not about proving anything. It’s about sharing something.
Perfection is always a desired goal, but it cannot be a primary goal. Expression has to be the primary goal, because otherwise, there is no need for an actual person to be there.
Alice Waters, Carol Burnett, Daniel Radcliffe, Hugh Jackman, Ed Koch, Trevor Noah
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