Samuel L Jackson
American actor
When I first got sober, in 1990.
When were you happiest?
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
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.
On the island of Bequia—one summer, out of the blue, a benefactor (thank you, Charlene) flew our entire family there and put us up in a cliffside house that was a weird mixture of Gaudí and Fred Flintstone and where we went to sleep at eight and got up at five. In between we read, swam, hiked, and unknowingly enjoyed the last moment before the irrevocable shear of adolescence set in.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
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Matthew Bourne
British choreographer
Can't quantify – I am often happy.
Lesley Sharp
British actress
When I am up in the air and about to hit the water, literally and metaphorically.
Right now, here with you. Let’s not ruin it by talking.
More from Sally Mann
View profile →Reading. And, in particular, reading on the deck of the cabin while my children play in the river below.
The loss of a child.
Knowing when to show up and when to go home.
Quickly, without warning, maybe even in my sleep, and while we're putting in requests: before I lose my mind and my ability to gallop across the countryside on horseback.
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