You should take the Proust Questionnaire – my answers are here

What is the Proust Questionnaire? It is a list of 35 questions printed in an old journal titled “An Album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc.” The list wasn’t invented by Proust but because he once used it, he made the list famous. The magazine Vanity Fair prints the Proust Questionnaire every monthly issue.

The 35 Questions answered by Marcel Proust

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 favourite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favourite writers?
28. Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favourite 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?

My 35 answers:

1. My idea of perfect happiness is when I have my primary and secondary needs satisfied. I want continuity for my progeny.
2. My greatest fear is the threat of poverty with zero recourse to survival.
3. I deplore my personality trait of appearing to be timid on the surface. I’m not.
4. I hate people who dump their problems on me expecting total reliance to help them.
5. I don’t admire a person 100% but I do admire the successful person.
6. My greatest extravagance is indulging in my fantasy of finding a good soul mate.
7. My current state of mind is to discover a sustainable resource to use.
8. My choice of the most over-rated virtue is the gift of the gab. Most people use this invent a false impression of themselves and thus to deceive others.
9. I might lie when I desire to hide the truth, or keep quiet and refuse to talk.
10. I hate it that I look older than my years.
11. I most despise the person who is viciously deceitful.
12. I like the quality of protectiveness.
13. I like the quality of sisterly love.
14. I may be overusing the word “maybe”.
15. The greatest love of my life would be my descendant.
16. I was happiest when I moved into my first truly independent apartment (where).
17. I want a talent to make money for my entire life. I was retrenched when my learned skill got redundant. I went to grad school but it didn’t work out for a job. My freelance gigs didn’t work out for long.
18. I half wish I studied a skill that would last me for my entire life.
19. I don’t have a greatest achievement. Yet.
20. I might wish to return as a human, with a better job or business.
21. I want to live in a peaceful place.
22. My most treasured possession that is a non-living thing, would be my portable laptop.
23. My lowest misery is incapacity to support myself.
24. My favorite occupation might be a profitable blogger.
25. I’m a quiet person.
26. I value loyalty.
27. I don’t have favorite authors.
28. I have none.
29. No heroic historical figure.
30. My heroes are my old church friends, who spent time with me to accompany me during my low point in life.
31. My favorite names are Arthur, and Mary.
32. I most dislike non-helping people.
33. My greatest regret could be not finding a reliable earning pathway.
34. I would like not to die. I’m unprepared to answer this.
35. My motto would be “There has got to be a solution or way out somehow.”