Marcel Proust’s Questionnaire

Answer these questions if you dare. David Bowie’s answers are “on-the-spot”, glib. I took some time with mine. I still want to go back, edit and reflect.

 

Here is Marcel Proust’s Questionnaire:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favorite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favorite writers?
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favorite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?

 

Here are my answers to Marcel Proust’s Questionnaire (constantly subject to change):

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

a book and a cup of Earl Grey Tea

1. What is your greatest fear?

Boredom

1. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

fear to express myself during an argument…I hate arguments because people expound and get loud and don’t listen to counter arguments. It’s boring and scary.

A quiet debate is so much more productive.

1. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

talking and not listening…disrespect

1. Which living person do you most admire?

Stephen King

1. What is your greatest extravagance?

generosity toward my children, anyone’s children and my dog, anyone’s dog

1. What is your current state of mind?

ruminative, imaginative, meditative, almost anything that ends in “-ive”

1. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

consistency   Like Thoreau said “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

1. On what occasion do you lie?

to protect someone I care about  (Sometimes that someone is myself.)

1. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

everything that’s sagging or aging or receding or spreading outward

1. Which living person do you most despise?

Isis and Donald Trump…anyone who’s powerful but demonstrates no humanity

1. What is the quality you most like in a man?

confidence and intelligence, paired with humility and imagination=humor

1. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

creativity paired with the confidence to express it=humor

1. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Recently: Into the Valley of Death rode the 600.

In my lifetime: Quintessential  (It’s a bombastic, pretentious and egotistical word.)

1. What or who is the greatest love of your life?

words

1. When and where were you happiest?

home, reading and/or writing, conversations with creative people, preferably with a water view

1. Which talent would you most like to have?

confidence without ego

1. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d be a better and more respectful listener.

1. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My children, my teaching, my books – My most important life’s works.

1. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A more improved, wiser version of myself.

1. Where would you most like to live?

a warm (but not hot), tolerant, small city by the ocean, with lots of public parks, forest trails, shoreline

1. What is your most treasured possession?

a cameo brooch my grandfather gave my grandmother, carved from a single seashell … Something small enough to hold in your hand and carry with you that you hope you never lose.

1. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

feeling frustrated when a situation is impossible and I have no control, no voice

1. What is your favorite occupation?

the cultivation of hope.. that’s what the editing process is all about, not just editing my writing, but my life. I like do-overs. That’s why conversation makes me feel anxious. You can’t erase and then rewrite something you’ve said. I guess that’s called an apology. Apologies are tough but necessary.

1. What is your most marked characteristic?

I’m thoughtfully hopeful and optimistic.

1. What do you most value in your friends?

creativity and humor

1. Who are your favorite writers?

Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Shakespeare (for the classics)

Camus (for essays and reflections – nonfiction)

Jeffery Deaver, Thomas Harris (only the first two books), Louise Penny, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – for contemporary. I like mysteries and crime.

1. Who is your hero of fiction?

Huckleberry Finn – his journey, his logic, his willingness and ability to change his fundamental beliefs about humanity and how this journey mirrored the profound changes the USA went through during his lifetime.

1. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Joan of Arc, Martha Corey… someone who was executed for the crime of witchcraft

1. Who are your heroes in real life?

Abraham Lincoln

Martin Luther King Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday

Jane Goodall

writers, musicians and artists…so many     Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Bach, Marvin Gaye, Gauguin, Degas…

1. What are your favorite names?

Tibalt and Cerulean    

1. What is it that you most dislike?

People who brag about money and material possessions.

People who exploit their weaknesses to earn sympathy.

Physical and emotional cruelty

1. What is your greatest regret?

Anytime I’ve ever bragged about anything.

Misrepresenting myself so I appear to be way cooler. (Same thing)

1. How would you like to die?

quickly and with as little pain as possible… Gunshot to a vital organ, if that fits the aforementioned description.

1. What is your motto?

“In the depth of winter I found there was within myself an invincible summer.” Camus

 

David Bowie’s answers (His 69th birthday was last week.)

 

 

• What is your idea of perfect happiness?

 

Reading.

 

• What is your most marked characteristic?

 

Getting a word in edgewise.

 

• What do you consider your greatest achievement?

 

Discovering morning.

 

• What is your greatest fear?

 

Converting kilometers to miles.

 

• What historical figure do you most identify with?

 

Santa Claus.

6. Which living person do you most admire?

Elvis.

7. Who are your heroes in real life?

The consumer.

8. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

While in New York, tolerance.

Outside New York, intolerance.

9. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Talent.

10. What is your favorite journey?

The road of artistic excess.

11. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Sympathy and originality.

12. Which word or phrases do you most overuse?

“Chthonic,” “miasma.”

13. What is your greatest regret?

That I never wore bellbottoms.

14. What is your current state of mind?

Pregnant.

15. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?

My fear of them (wife and son excluded).

16. What is your most treasured possession?

A photograph held together by cellophane tape of Little Richard that I bought in 1958, and a pressed and dried chrysanthemum picked on my honeymoon in Kyoto.

17. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Living in fear.

18. Where would you like to live?

Northeast Bali or south Java.

19. What is your favorite occupation?

Squishing paint on a senseless canvas.

20. What is the quality you most like in a man?

The ability to return books.

21. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

The ability to burp on command.

22. What are your favorite names?

Sears & Roebuck.

23. What is your motto?

“What” is my motto.