What is your idea of perfect happiness?

The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.

To relax without being bothered.

Being with my best friend, who’s a girl.

I like to spend time with my family, and also relax at my beach house or on my farm.

Being inside and watching really bad weather outside … and, if it’s after 5:30 P.M., with a glass of Chardonnay in hand.

Walking in my garden in England with my wife.

“Perfect happiness!”—waking in the morning to a clear & benevolent-seeming sky, a view from a window of a beautiful (if overgrown) garden, a cat purring. The excitement of rewriting the previous day’s work, & continuing on from that point energized & hopeful. For a writer, “happiness” isn’t likely to ever be “perfect”—but it is likely to be bound up with the work-in-progress. First drafts tend to be frustrating, exhausting—subsequent drafts sometimes move swiftly, even miraculously. For most adults, “Perfect is the enemy of good”—we learn to appreciate whatever measure of happiness we have, however modest.

Devouring an egg salad sandwich with the salt, pepper, and mayo in exactly the right proportion.

When I was growing up on a farm in rural Alabama, I fell in love with raising chickens. They seem truly innocent. Whenever I'm around chickens, I feel happy.

A sudden summer breeze on a hot afternoon.

Being surrounded by my friends and family. Just listening to them interacting, laughing, sharing. It is the culmination of everything I could have hoped for.

I’m walking down a street in New York, the sun is shining, I’m on my way to see friends who are chosen family—and I’ve just written a couple of pages that I like.

Shopping at the organic farmers market, buying whatever’s in season that looks the ripest and most vibrant, and bringing it home to cook with my friends.

Filling out this Proust Questionnaire. I try to be in the moment.

Being out in a gorgeous natural setting with time to enjoy.

A fall day on the beach with Elliot and my dog, Luna, and the sea, sand, and sky.

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.

Clarity when I am writing.