I’ve constantly been changing myself my whole life. I am what you would call “a piece of work” in progress.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Question
How would you like to die?
Death & what remains
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
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.
I’d like to have a more generous, less anxious mind.
The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 25 January 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 52 →Being too open and generous to those who don’t deserve it.
Carrie Fisher
Actor and writer
My inability to have romantic relationships.
Patti Smith
Musician, poet and photographer
I would love to have a better sense of physical balance.
More from George Saunders
View profile →Read incorrectly, that sounds like a threat. No thanks, Vanity Fair !
Pittsford, New York, writing my first book when our kids were small, riding my bike to work because we only had one car…that feeling of being needed and loved and vitally involved in something artistic that I didn’t fully understand, everything still lying ahead of us.
Being aware and accepting of whatever the state of my mind happens to be at the moment (even if that state is unhappy).
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
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 112 answers
Also answered this
Patti Smith, Kazuo Ishiguro, Carrie Fisher, Stephen Fry, Elmore Leonard, Danielle Steel
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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