I appropriated this from one of my best college friends, Paula. More original than the now ubiquitous 25 Things, but I'd expect nothing less from her.
In the back pages of Vanity Fair each month, readers find The Proust Questionnaire, a series of questions posed to subjects about their lives, thoughts, values, and experience.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Elizabeth Bennet, Henry DeTamble, and Oskar Schell
The quality you most admire in a man?
Genuine comfort with the word “feminism”
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Confidence
Your favorite painter?
Edward Hopper
Your favorite musician?
Stevie Wonder
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
May and June 2008
What is your greatest fear?
Not being able to trust anyone
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Obedience
What do you consider the most underrated virtue?
Honesty
Which living person do you most admire?
Michelle Obama, Lara Logan, Tina Fey
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Insecurity
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Falseness and cowardice
Where would you like to live?
In a walkable, livable urban area with access to decent public transit near others who care about this stuff; I'd like to spend the summer somewhere else
What trait do you most admire in others?
Ambition and intelligence with underlying humility
What is your greatest extravagance?
Joe’s Jeans and Bobbi Brown makeup [thanks, PSR]
What is it that you most dislike?
Lying and cheating in all of their forms
Who would you have liked to be?
Jane Jacobs, Marvin Gaye, Sloane Crosley
What is your present state of mind?
Overwhelmed and disappointed
What would you like to be?
I’d like to make a positive contribution to different communities by helping them function more efficiently through some kind of transportation or land use planning job. I’d also like to create a strong marriage and a happy and functional family unit. I want to go places and see new things; I want to find the guy who makes me think and laugh and who wants go everywhere and see everything and potentially drag some children who hate my time capsules along with us at some point.
What is your most treasured possession?
Having my own bathroom is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
Reading a magazine while laying in a hammock on the beach with the sound of the ocean in the background
What is your favorite occupation?
Prowling used bookstores; one-on-one conversations with people I love; watching well-constructed comedy or drama
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being brave enough to do the hard thing because it is the right thing
What do you most value in your friends?
Humor, loyalty, honesty, acceptance
What is your motto?
“May I be I is the only prayer—not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong.”
--e.e. cummings--
