When, as a university freshman, I would go to the ocean in the summer and free-dive all day long.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
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.
Wow, these are big questions! Happiness, as I’ve experienced it and observed it in others, seems to be random—some of us are happy fairly regularly (I am, mostly), and some of us not as much—but there seems to be no clear explanation as to why. It comes and goes at unexpected moments, too. The graph of happiness doesn’t even seem to match what is going on in our lives. Or maybe it does and we don’t know it. Money—is there a connection between money and happiness? It takes away a world of worries and anxieties, but are rich folks all happy? Are you kidding? Donald Trump is ALWAYS scowling. That said, it’s hard to be happy if you don’t know where you’ll sleep or where your next meal is coming from. The pursuit of happiness? Where are we supposed to look? Are there clues hidden somewhere? The very act of searching and striving for it can lead to frustration and unhappiness. I suspect that happiness finds you—I’m not sure you can find a road that leads to it. Happiness is everywhere, though some cultures are, I’ve read, happier overall than others—G.N.P. be damned. Is sunshine one of those things? Are tropical folks generally happier?
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 3 December 2014 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 161 →To survive from an impossible condition.
Sitting in a living room with my sister, Pat Thaler, and her seven grandchildren and just talking with them. They range in age from 9 to 21 years old.
A fireplace, a book, and a snowy day, with no possibility of getting into the office.
More from David Byrne
View profile →I’ll know it when I see it. Hello, Room 101.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Caetano Veloso, Terry and Jo Harvey Allen, Ford Wheeler, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning. My late father.
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