Happy Birthday, Proust

Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth.

Marcel Proust, born on this day in 1871, from Time Regained

The Questionnaire ...

1. The principal aspect of my personality:
2. The quality that I desire in a man:
3. The quality that I desire in a woman:
4. Your chief characteristic:
5. What I appreciate most about my friends:
6. My main fault:
7. My favorite occupation:
8. My dream of happiness:
9. What would be my greatest misfortune?
10. What I should like to be:
11. The country where I should like to live:
12. My favorite color:
13. My favorite bird:
14. My favorite prose authors:
15. My favorite poets:
16. My heroes in fiction:
17. My favorite heroines in fiction.
18. My favorite composers:
19. My favorite painters:
20. My heroes in real life:
21. My heroines in history:
22. My favorite names:
23. What I hate most of all:
24. Historical figures that I despise the most:
25. The military event that I admire most:
26. The gift of nature that I would like to have:
27. How I want to die:
28. My present state of mind:
29. Faults for which I have the most indulgence:
30. My motto: