Yo-Yo Ma
Cellist
Those times when I feel equilibrium, maximum consciousness, and clarity.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
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.
A balmy, moonlit evening in Key West. George and I are enjoying a pasta dinner on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Ella Fitzgerald is singing in the background.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 28 April 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 158 →Being with my family and kids, on an island, eating and drinking.
Barack Obama
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
When I feel as if the people closest to me are happy and healthy and I'm connected with them, and when I feel as if I'm doing things that are making other people better and happy, then I feel real good. That's when I'm at my peak.
A glass of wine at sunset on Fire Island. / No homework.
More from Judy Blume
View profile →That we’re going down the tubes as a country (make that the whole world).
Really? Okay, if I have enough time I might go to Switzerland and drink the drink. I believe in euthanasia. What we do for our beloved pets, we should be able to do for our beloved humans or ourselves.
I love that my true friends don’t think of me as that Judy, but as the Judy they’ve known for years, a woman, like them. And I love their senses of humor.
My phobias. I’m down to two, so I take that as a positive sign.
More on identity & self
- What is your greatest fear? 256 answers
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 195 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 111 answers
- What are you most proud of? 103 answers
Also answered this
Zadie Smith, Danielle Steel, Elmore Leonard, Karl Ove Knausgård, George Saunders, Joyce Carol Oates
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject