Drinks on the deck at sunset.
Identity & self
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
161 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.
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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
A fireplace, a book, and a snowy day, with no possibility of getting into the office.
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.
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.
Loud bar, good band, cold beer, ride home.
Sitting in a living room with my sister, Pat Thaler, and her seven grandchildren and just talking with them. They range in age from 9 to 21 years old.
Getting hired. With the possible exception of my daughters’ births and my wedding day, the happiest moments of my life were when someone offered me a job.
A taco truck on every corner.
No contest: seeing my grandchildren enjoying each other.
Malala Yousafzai
Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace
Being grateful for what you have.
John Lewis
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
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.
Gloria Steinem
Writer and feminist organiser
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.
Bill Clinton
42nd President of the United States, 1993–2001
Yeah. I’m the luckiest person who ever lived, you know? I worked hard, like a demon. Some would say too hard from time to time, and I over-married, and I had a magnificent child. I have been incredibly fortunate, but I had the American Dream, and it didn’t matter to anybody that nobody in my family had ever been to college.
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