Garrison Keillor: What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? — FLAPSS

The question

What does happiness look like for you when life is going well?

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.

GK

Garrison Keillor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

To be wildly, desperately, carelessly, nakedly in love, of course. Crazy, obsessive love: brooding, baying at the moon, writing daily missives to the adored. Who wouldn’t want this? Even though the crash is painful.

The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2009 source ↗

Others on this question

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Carrie Brownstein

Reading a book with a dog asleep on either side of me.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 21 August 2018 source ↗

A long summer’s evening on the front porch with my wife, Judith, watching the hawks circling overhead and the sun disappearing through the trees.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 July 2011 source ↗

Aretha Franklin

It’s never going to be absolutely perfect. There will always be something you would change if you could.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 November 2003 source ↗

Pedro Almodóvar Film director

A sudden summer breeze on a hot afternoon.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 19 February 2020 source ↗

More from Garrison Keillor

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Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

Self-denigration, an old strategy for extorting praise from people. (“I am a terrible person.” “No, you’re a wonderful person and we all love you.”)

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

That this is all there is, and there is no more.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

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

The night my daughter was born, New York, December 29, 1997. After she emerged and I held her in the palm of my hand, I walked around Manhattan in a stupor of happiness.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

My president, a heroic figure—also good- humored, pretty smart, elegant; and if the rest of the world thinks he typifies America, I don’t mind at all.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2009 source ↗

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