you will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life

What is the simplest truth you can express in words?

      I miss my friend.

What gives your life meaning?

      no one single thing. There's huge danger in losing oneself in one pursuit, one obsession, one companion, one goal. 

    I find meaning in the books that I read, the food that I make, and the letters I write. Watching squirrels hoarding nuts, even in the harshest weather. Simple kindnesses, like holding a door for someone, or complimenting a friend's new haircut. A job well done.

Can there be ... happiness without sadness?

      so I've been told. I'm not sure that I can believe that.

...Pleasure without pain? 

     yes, if one consciously puts aside the recognition of the pain. For instance, there is pleasure in a bloom of a flower, despite the awareness (which can be temporary set aside) that the flower will inevitably wither.

...Peace without war?

      I hope so?

What’s something you’d like others to remember about you at the end of your life?

      no one specific thing - just that, if I loved them, I did so fiercely. And if they think that anything needed to be forgiven, it was.

Is there such a thing as perfect?

      of course not. Things are changing all the time, including the concept of perfection. It's a moving target, and more often than not only realized in retrospect.

To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?

      not as much as I should have, probably. I get by according to intuition and sense more than a greater plan.

What does it mean to be human?

      knowing right from wrong. Expressing the finer - and the least fine - characteristics, like joy and anger, lust and pity, love and jealousy. Capacity for imagining or attaining some philosophy.

If you looked into the heart of your enemy, what do you think you would find that is different from what is in your own heart?      

    foolishness and arrogance. Failure to treasure something infinitely valuable.

What do you love most about yourself?

      tenacity

Is it more important to do what you love or to love what you are doing?

      it's not possible to love what you are doing, if that means that the love comes later, as the result of trying. Love just is. Or it isn't.

What do you imagine yourself doing ten years from now?

      this is the only line of questioning that I will never, ever answer again. I find it offensive, frustrating, and sad.

Where would you most like to go and why?

      I'm feeling the call back to the Flatland. There's some people I'd like to spend time with, a couple of restaurants I'd like to go to, and a grave I need to visit.

 

[from here; the title quotation is by Albert Camus, from the essay "Intuitions"]