READER QUESTION Rafael Battaglia Popp, Guarulhos, SP
It is a set of self-knowledge questions that became famous after being answered by the French author Marcel Proust (1871-1922). During the writer’s adolescence, notebooks with these types of questions were a common pastime. He responded to that of his friend Antoinette when he was 18. This manuscript was found in 1924 and has since become popular as a standard form of interview. Several celebrities have already responded to it in a fixed section of the magazine. vanity fair or on the TV show Inside the Actors Studiofor example.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Know the questions (and what Proust answered for each of them)
1- What is the main aspect of your personality?
“The need to be loved; more precisely, the need to be cherished and pampered, much greater than the need to be admired”
2- What is your favorite quality in a man?
“Masculine qualities and sincerity in friendship”
3- What is your favorite quality in a woman?
“Women’s Charms”
4- What do you most appreciate in friends?
“Have affection for me, if your personality is amazing enough to make your affection even more valuable”
5- What is your main defect?
“Not knowing and not being able to ‘want’ something”
6- What is your favorite pastime?
«Love»
7- What is your notion of happiness?
“I don’t think she’s amazing enough. I don’t have the courage to reveal it, I’m afraid to destroy it just by telling it.”
8- What is your notion of unhappiness?
“Not knowing my mother or my grandmother”
9- If you weren’t yourself, who would you be?
“Myself, which is who people who look up to me would like me to be”
10- Where would you like to live?
“In a country where certain things I liked would come true as if by magic, and where affection would always be reciprocated”
11- What is your favorite color?
“Beauty is not in the colors, but in the harmony between them”
12- Who is your favorite writer?
“Currently, Anatole France and Pierre Loti”
13- Who is your favorite poet?
“Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny”
14- What is your favorite hero in fiction?
“Hamlet”
15- What is your favorite heroine in fiction?
“Berenice”
16- Who are your favorite painters and composers?
“Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Beethoven, Wagner and Schumann”
17- Who are your heroes in real life?
“Mr. Darlu and Mr. Boutroux
18- What is your favorite female figure in history?
“Cleopatra”
19- What are your favorite names?
“I only have one at a time”
20- What do you hate the most?
“What is bad about me”
21- Which historical figures do you hate the most?
“I am not educated enough to answer”
22- What military event do you most admire?
“My military service!”
23- What natural talent would you like to have?
“Willpower and Seduction”
24- How would you like to die?
“Evolved and loved”
25- What is your current state of mind?
“Bored with having to think about myself to answer these questions”
26- Which defect do you have less tolerance for?
“Those I Understand”
27- What is your favorite motto?
“I should be too scared to cause myself misfortunes”