PROUST Q&A

FROM VANITY FAIR: The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlour game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. 

I first saw the Proust Questionnaire in MK and Ashley's Olsen one book, Influence. They answered the questionnaire themselves as well as giving it to the interviewees in their book. Somewhere under my bed in an old shoe box, I have old Proust Questionnaires that I've filled out over the years. I think it's interesting to see how our responses change over time. What influences us over the years? How has experience, society, fear, love change us? The Questionnaire featured in Influence included different questions but these are similar.

From October 2017, here are the questions and my answers. I encourage you to think about these questions, answer them. See how they change. My answers now certainly aren't the same as my answers at age 16.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Between adventure (seeing new things) and staying in bed with a special man.

What is your greatest fear?
Being abandoned.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I'm an awfully shy person.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Lack of kindness.

Which living person do you most admire?
My mother - for all her forgiveness, strengths and failures.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Clothing.

What is your current state of mind?
Between restlessness and tired

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Beauty

On what occasion do you lie?
When I feel that the truth cannot satisfy.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My skin.

Which living person do you most despise?
At this point, my last manager - without much vengeance but for the sake of the question.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Kindness, patience, thoughtfulness.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Strength, courage, recklessness.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
My own indecisiveness

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
San Francisco and art

When and where were you happiest?
I am happiest when I travel, but I am pretty happy now. It feels like all the pieces of my life are falling into place.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Patience

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I wouldn't be sick.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Surviving the most disastrous year of my life in 2012

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?
A cat or some part of a forest.

Where would you most like to live?
San Francisco, Vancouver, right here in Toronto

What is your most treasured possession?
All my journals, some of my books

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Feeling as if you're not quite good enough/ feeling immense blinding physical pain

What is your favourite occupation?
Lover

What is your most marked characteristic?
Cheeks and snark

What do you most value in your friends?
Kindness

Who are your favourite writers?
Murakami

Who is your hero of fiction?
The damaged.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I'm not sure.

Who are your heroes in real life?
My mom and my best friend

What are your favourite names?
Those named after cities and places

What is that you most dislike?
Entitlement

What is your greatest regret?
Doing too much and not doing enough; all the ways my heart is broken, all the ways I didn't like it open

How would you like to die?
Without stuff left to do

What is your motto?
The rose is without why.

Be curious, not judgemental.