Since July 1993, the back page of Vanity Fair has been devoted to the Proust Questionnaire, in which a noteworthy person answers a series of personal questions. The questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust (1871–1922), the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.*
Proust Questionnaire
In the interest of revealing my true nature, I offer my answers to the Proust Questionnaire.
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Each moment, I just may not always see it.
2. What is your greatest fear?
To be falsely accused.
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I do not deplore any quality, characteristic or part of myself.
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Bigotry.
5. Which living person do you most admire?
Everyone I encounter, it takes an enormous amount of courage to be alive.
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
This life.
7. What is your current state of mind?
I am home, the most peaceful place I know.
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
With the exception of gratitude, all virtues are overrated.
9. On what occasion do you lie?
On fewer occasions than I once did.
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Only that I still give it attention.
11. Which living person do you most despise?
Not as many as I once did.
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
A connection with his anima.
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
A very strong connection with her anima.
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I don't remember.
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The white shadow with whom I blended in a dream before I became me.
16. When and where were you happiest?
Yesterday, Esalen, riding my vespa, here, in a lover's arms, and the day is not over.
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
To be.
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Right now, nothing.
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being here.
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
This is it. I won't be back as either a person or a thing.
21. Where would you most like to live?
Wherever I am, hopefully warm.
22. What is your most treasured possession?
My dreams.
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Loss of a loved one.
24. What is your favorite occupation?
Having no occupation.
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
Being true to myself.
26. What do you most value in your friends?
The truth, straight up.
27. Who are your favorite writers?
Henry Miller, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Marie Corelli, Rumi, Billy Collins, Mary Oliver....
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
I don't have heroes.
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
No one.
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
I still don't have heroes.
31. What are your favorite names?
I prefer not to name things.
32. What is it that you most dislike?
Man's inhumanity.
33. What is your greatest regret?
I always thought I'd see her, one more time.
34. How would you like to die?
Totally aware, "joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware."
35. What is your motto?
I Am Here!
Photo Credit: Andre Carrilho, April 2005. Vanity Fair.