The Weekly Croissant: The Proust Questionnaire

Rapid fire with bandmate and manager

From Vanity Fair: “The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.”

I sat down one AM in England to answer these questions rapid-fire with my bandmate Steve and my manager Neil— sometimes we gave up and those ones I left blank. I didn’t want to overthink it, lest I not reveal my “true nature”.

Proust Questionnaire

__1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Steve: Some kind of inner peace

Neil: a lazy afternoon with friends

Rachel: Being in the flow state of making art

__2.__What is your greatest fear?

Steve: Incompetence

Neil: Failing in public

Rachel: witnessing the brutal downfall of humanity

__3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Steve: lack of self-control

Neil: Selfishness

Rachel: Trying too hard

__4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Steve: selfishness

Neil: unkindness

Rachel: willful lack of followthrough

__5.__Which living person do you most admire?

Steve:

Neil:

Rachel:

__6.__What is your greatest extravagance?

Steve: music gear

Neil: watches, holidays or cars

Rachel: coffee and food

__7.__What is your current state of mind?

Steve: flux

Neil: perky

Rachel: discouraged

__8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Rachel: “niceness”

Neil: patience

Steve:

__9.__On what occasion do you lie?

Rachel: to save someone’s feelings

Neil: when it’s appropriate

Steve: to not hurt someone’s feelings

__10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Rachel: my body proportions

Neil: Getting older

Steve: My short teeth

__11.__Which living person do you most despise?

Rachel: I try not to give my energy away

Neil

Steve

__12.__What is the quality you most like in a man?

Steve:

Neil: turning up when you say you’re gonna turn up, consistency

Rachel: ability to not be center stage

__13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Steve: super competent and confident in the work

Rachel: strength

Neil: we don’t like this gendering

__14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Steve: any superlative

Rachel: I repeat myself all the time

Neil: “great”

__15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Steve: music (and Libby!)

Rachel: Music (and George haha)

Neil: Allison

__16.__When and where were you happiest?

Steve: during lockdown

Neil: on the pacific coast of Vancouver Island

Rachel: Edinburgh semester of college abroad

__17.__Which talent would you most like to have?

Steve: write well

Neil: foreign language

Rachel: language learning

__18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Steve: more naturally outgoing and social

Rachel: I would be more content

Neil: had the confidence to start earlier in my career

__19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Rachel: living a freelance life

Steve: being content with where I’m at as a musician

Neil: getting out of my hometown, loving my work

__20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Rachel: a dog

Neil: a cat

Steve: a dog

__21.__Where would you most like to live?

Rachel: Montana with horses

Neil: Somewhere on the California coast

Steve: on the beach in Michigan

__22.__What is your most treasured possession?

Rachel: the red cabin

Neil: my watch

Steve: my bass

__23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Neil: not being in control of your destiny

Steve: losing your mind, dementia

Rachel: oppression

__24.__What is your favorite occupation?

Steve: learning

Neil: gaming/listening

Rachel: creating

__25.__What is your most marked characteristic?

(answered for each other)

Steve: intensity

Neil: relentlessly positive

Rachel: emotional and intellectual roller coaster

__26.__What do you most value in your friends?

Rachel: being there when it’s important

Neil: companionship and conversation

Steve: companionship

__27.__Who are your favorite writers?

Rachel: Hanif Abdurraqib, Sally Rooney, Louise Erdrich

Neil: Isaac Asimov

Steve:

__28.__Who is your hero of fiction?

Neil

Steve

Rachel

__29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with?

__30.__Who are your heroes in real life?

__31.__What are your favorite names?

__32.__What is it that you most dislike?

Rachel: feeling stuck, injustice

Neil: meanness

Steve

__33.__What is your greatest regret?

Rachel I hate having regrets

Neil: I got professionally stuck in my 20s

Steve: pass

__34.__How would you like to die?

Rachel: Very quickly at a young age before everyone I love

Steve: peacefully

Neil: painlessly at an old age with my marbles intact

__35.__What is your motto?

Rachel: it’s all not gonna be ok, always have available food

Steve: no motto, everything sucks and people are selfish

Neil: it’s all gonna be ok