Danielle Steel
Novelist
Healthy, happy children. A wonderful, loving partner with whom to share my life.
Identity & self
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
165 answers answered between 1999 and 2026 one of 5 in The Proust Questionnaire
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.
On the record
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
Read by field
Everyone
Arts and letters 133
Politics and public life 13
Business and finance 10
Technology 1
Sport 8
Read by age
Any age
Before thirty 2
In their thirties 1
In their forties 3
In their fifties 4
In their sixties 14
Seventy and beyond 18
Terry Gross
Radio interviewer
A glass of wine, a good dinner with my husband, and a day ahead of me without a deadline is close enough.
Dolly Parton
American singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman
A big loaded baked potato and a good book with time to eat it and read it.
T Bone Burnett
Musician and record producer
Perfection is a second-rate idea. I would guess, however, that perfected happiness would be joy, the most intricate and mercurial of all sensations. The moment one recognizes joy, it flees. I’m not sure where Proust is going with this line of questioning, and I don’t want to be evasive, so I will say my idea of perfect happiness is the end of economics; we grow like flowers and fly like birds; the lion lays down with the lamb—a ridiculous idea.
Diane Keaton
Actor and director
A glass of red wine with ice.
John Mellencamp
Singer and songwriter
It’s not our God-given right to be happy. So, if a man can laugh out loud once or twice a day, that would be happiness.
Yo-Yo Ma
Cellist
Those times when I feel equilibrium, maximum consciousness, and clarity.
Gayle King
Broadcaster
Close friends, spectacular food, gorgeous weather, and interesting conversation!
Ina Garten
Cookery writer and shop owner
Sundays in Paris with Jeffrey. We go to the Sunday market, make a nice lunch, drink a big bottle of Burgundy, and then take a long delicious nap. Heaven.
Sally Mann
Photographer
Reading. And, in particular, reading on the deck of the cabin while my children play in the river below.
Hans Zimmer
Film composer
Playing around in my studio by myself, discovering the possibility of new ideas.
George Saunders
Short-story writer and novelist
Being aware and accepting of whatever the state of my mind happens to be at the moment (even if that state is unhappy).
Kazuo Ishiguro
Novelist and screenwriter; Nobel laureate in Literature, 2017
Sitting down to a leisurely conversation in an English tearoom with my wife, a friend, or even an interesting stranger. Good cake is essential.
Being at our beach house with my family in the Bahamas.
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