the proust questionnaire*

what is your most marked characteristic?
biting sarcasm, a perpetual desire to please and be seen as worth admiring; i would hope to say, the yearning to love from the barest of my heart and be loved

what is the quality you most like in a man?
charisma, charm, a masculine tenderness

what is the quality you most like in a woman?
subtle confidence, feminine conviction, unabashed intelligence

what do you most value in your friends?
support, for always being there for me regardless of what mistakes i have made or stupid decisions that brought me to undesirable consequences

what is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
never having put my all into something, lack of conviction, indesiveness

what is your favorite occupation?
ask me again in twenty years, but for now, living

what is your idea of perfect happiness?
having succeeded at something i absolutely love, being able to wake up every morning next to the one i absolutely love, surrounded by the company of those i absolutely love and cannot live without

what do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
failing at something because i was too scared to take the risk

in which country would you like to live?
i could never consider any other country home...but i think i'd like to try my hand in paris, or even some small city in the south of spain or italy

who are your favorite writers?
ayn rand, f. scott fitzgerald, david sedaris

who are your favorite poets?
ee cummings, ts eliot, rainer maria rilke

who is your favorite hero of fiction?
sydney carton

who is your favorite heroine of fiction?
anna karenina

who are your favorite composers?
chopin, shubert, debussy

who are your favorite painters?
raphael, caravaggio, picasso

what are your favorite names?
i actually don't have any at the moment, but it'd have to be something unique

what is it that you most dislike?
ignorance and narrow-mindedness

which talent would you most like to have?
i'd have to steal proust's answer and say irresistible charm

how would you like to die?
as someone who had an impact on people's lives, perhaps even having changed something, even something seemingly insignificant in the world

what is your current state of mind?
introspective, trying to figure out the best answers for this questionnaire

what is your motto?
hrm, i don't have one, if anything, it'd be carpe diem

*at the age of 20, marcel proust put his own psyche under the microscope by answering questions meant to reveal one's innermost thoughts; more than a century later, "the proust questionnaire" continues to be a popular method of interviewing