“Q: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? A: Living in fear.”

David Bowie left us with countless fruits starting with his amazing music and voice, to quotes, movies and art. Maybe the greatest gift he gave to humanity is the way he approached life and his identity.

David Bowie had the spirit of rebellion. Not a rebellion against a system, or a government, but a rebellion against the prison of identity. He was one of the few who realized that anyone can be anything, no matter how they look, that life was meant to be celebrated and not taken too seriously, that we should not take our identity too seriously.

We are all here as the people we identify with for a limited amount of time. Sooner or later we all go back to be the starpeople we all are. So why don’t we live like this? Through the answers of this amazing interview you can see the artistic way David Bowie looked at life: FUN, HUMOR, LIVING IN THE MOMENT!

 

David Bowie’s Answers to Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire:

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

D. Bowie: Reading.

 

What is your most marked characteristic?

D. Bowie: Getting a word in edgewise.

 

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

D. Bowie: Discovering morning.

 

What is your greatest fear?

D. Bowie: Converting kilometers to miles.

 

What historical figure do you most identify with?

D. Bowie: Santa Claus.

 

Which living person do you most admire?

D. Bowie: Elvis.

 

Who are your heroes in real life?

D. Bowie: The consumer.

 

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

D. Bowie: While in New York, tolerance.

Outside New York, intolerance.

 

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

D. Bowie: Talent.

 

What is your favorite journey?

D. Bowie: The road of artistic excess.

 

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

D. Bowie: Sympathy and originality.

 

Which word or phrases do you most overuse?

D. Bowie: “Chthonic,” “miasma.”

 

What is your greatest regret?

D. Bowie: That I never wore bellbottoms.

 

What is your current state of mind?

D. Bowie: Pregnant.

 

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

D. Bowie: My fear of them (wife and son excluded).

 

What is your most treasured possession?

D. Bowie: A photograph held together by cellophane tape of Little Richard that I bought in 1958, and a pressed and dried chrysanthemum picked on my honeymoon in Kyoto.

 

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

D. Bowie: Living in fear.

 

Where would you like to live?

D. Bowie: Northeast Bali or south Java.

 

What is your favorite occupation?

D. Bowie: Squishing paint on a senseless canvas.

 

What is the quality you most like in a man?

D. Bowie: The ability to return books.

 

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

D. Bowie: The ability to burp on command.

 

What are your favorite names?

D. Bowie: Sears & Roebuck.

 

What is your motto?

D. Bowie: “What” is my motto.

 

I’ll leave you with one of the greatest quotes from David Bowie: