Yve Laran — The Proust Questionnaire

Responding opens up ourselves to others

I feel inspired to take up the writing challenge of other writers on Illumination, who have been responding to the Proust questionnaire. I used to enjoy watching a cable program called “Inside The Actor’s Studio,” with the host, James Lipton, asking these questions while interviewing famous actors.

The questions are open-ended, which I think is the appeal to their enduring quality. Anyone’s answers may change over the course of a lifetime.

These are the questions, and my responses:

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Cooking a great dinner at home. Snuggling under the blankets with a good book, a candle burning on the coffee table, and something good to sip on.

What is your greatest fear?

Dying young. To me, this means dying any time before 85 to 90 years of age.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Striving for perfection, which as I’ve been learning, is a form of procrastination. Life is too short to delay getting started on what matters.

Which living person do you most admire?

How is it possible to think of only one person? I choose Barack Obama. He’s an eloquent speaker and family oriented.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Friendliness. Anyone may act like your friend, but not have good intentions at heart.

On what occasion do you lie?

If I know that telling someone something devastating will harm their feelings beyond repair. It’s a “lie of omission,” meaning that silence is the best course of action.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I understand. Yeah.

Who or what is the greatest love of your life?

I think the men I have loved at each stage of life have been my greatest loves. Life is not static, and neither is love.

When and where were you happiest?

On a trip to Salzburg, Austria in 1995.

Which talent would you most like to have?

Entrepreneurship. To create a company from scratch, or to catapult an idea of benefit to millions, is phenomenal.

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

Decisiveness. I like to examine all possibilities before choosing a single course of action.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Putting myself through grad school at night, while working full time during the day. I didn’t sleep for two years.

Where would you most like to live?

I am exactly where I want to be, in New York. Being away for several months provided the experience to know I don’t want to be anywhere else.

What do you most value in your friends?

Camaraderie, and their ability to provide great advice at key moments.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Thomas Jefferson. He collected a library filled with books, which he donated when the Library of Congress was burned by the British in 1814. He once said, “I cannot live without books.” Isn’t this true of many writers?