The Proust Questionnaire: Richard Wagamese

The Proust Questionnaire is believed to reveal an individual’s true nature. We have asked Incite authors 17 questions inspired by the questionnaire in an attempt to uncover who they are…

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Perfect happiness is laying on the sofa in the dark beside my wife after a long, productive day listening to something moving and beautiful and not having to be or wanting to be anywhere but there in those sublime moments engulfed in music.

What does your ideal day look like?
Fire in the wood stove, coffee, quiet, calm, sitting in the semi-darkness meditating, then moving to my desk to write, going for a walk later, sharing supper with my wife, reading, listening to music.

What is your greatest extravagance?
I collect music. Everything from classical to jazz, blues to gospel, funk to R&B, country to soul, rock ‘n’ roll to reggae. There can never be too much music.

What possession would you be heartbroken if you lost?
My passion for writing..

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My feet. I could handle having more elegant feet instead of my broad, flat Ojibway feet that look like brown paddles when I wear sandals.

What childhood fear has followed you into adulthood?
That Snoopy will one day get shot down by the Red Baron.

Do you take comfort in darkness or light?
I take comfort in dark jeans and light opera, dark roast coffee and light cream cheese, dark humor and light conversation, dark sunglasses and light from a distant star, dark horses in a contest and light banter at a hockey game…

Do you remember your dreams?
No. I never seem to be awake when they happen.

How do you collect snippets of observations and ideas that come to you unexpectedly?
I have a phenomenal memory and can recall the smallest details of the smallest things even years, decades after.

What emotions do you experience when you sit down to begin a new work?
Calm. Wonder. Awe. Anticipation. Surprise.

What is your favorite way to avoid writing?
Doing Proust Questionnaires.

Does being in love propel or postpone your work?
Being in love is a condition of my life and it fills me, empowers me, sustains me and defines me so in terms of my work it is a fundamental part of it.

How do you work under pressure?
I sit upright and type.

What published book do you secretly wish you had written?
The Bible, those royalties are killer.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
General Custer. Some days there just seem to be way too many Indians.

If you were reincarnated as a person or a thing, who or what would you be?
An umbrella for all those people who considered me an open and shut case on my first pass.

Tell us one thing you can’t prove but believe is true.
Loreen Harper is a ventriloquist. Ever notice how Stephen doesn’t speak when she takes a drink of water??

Thank you to Dany Laferriere, CBC and Vanity Fair for the inspiration.