The Happiness Project: 12 Culture-Shapers on How to Find Joy in Tough Times – GQ Magazine

Roddy Ricch: I dont go looking for happiness in thingsI look for happiness within myself. If you cant nd happiness within yourself, then you dont have happiness. Theres nothing in the world that can give you happiness but something inside of you.

David Lynch: One thing Ive noticed is that many of us, we do what we call work, for a goal, for a result. And in the doing, it's not that much happiness. And yet that's our life going by. If you're transcending every day... it eventually comes to: It doesn't matter what your work is, you just get happy in the work, you get happy in the little things and the big things. And if the result isn't what you dreamed of, it doesn't kill you if you enjoyed the doing of it. It's important that we enjoy the doing of our life.

Samantha Bee: So can a person be too happy? I mean, I think you could conate happiness with being too naive about the world or anything. But I think people who are happy are great. We should learn from them.

Drew Barrymore: [laughs] According to station managers, at the rst week of my show, I was too happy! They were like: Is she going to be this enthusiastic the entire season? Because its too much. I just didnt know what to do with the note. I felt a little embarrassed, you know, and then I kind of just started laughing and I was like, Yeah, no, I see it tooI really am fucking excited, arent I?

Anthony Hopkins: I know nothing. I dont know anything. My favorite story is The Appointment in Samarra. About the servant who goes to the market to get goods for the caliph, and in the marketplace he sees Death. Death beckons to him, so he gets on his horse and he runs back to his master and says, I saw Death in the marketplace. Can you lend me your fastest steed? I must go off to Samarra tonight, to be with my family. Yeah, go, go. So the master himself goes down, and he sees Death in the marketplace and goes up to him and says, You wanted to talk to my servant. What was your message for him? Death says, I just wanted to tell him Im going to meet him tonight in Samarra. [laughs] Enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because we dont know. We know nothing.

Tracy Morgan: I just forget what made me unhappy, or try to find out where the communication breakdown took place, fix it, and move forward. Keep moving forward. You got tomorrow. And you know what they say about tomorrow, right? [Morgan starts singing down the phone] "The sunll come out...tomorrow! So you got to hang on till tomorrow! There'll be sun..." [Morgan stops singing his Annie showtune, as though he has finished. But then he starts right up again] Just thinking about that tomorrow! Must be able to hang on till tomorrow. There'll be sun..." Know what I told you at the beginning of the conversation that makes me happy? The sun. [Starts singing for a third time] "The sunll come out...!" The sun will come out tomorrow! You want to stay upset? Can't stay upset. At some point that sun's gonna come out, regardless.

Roxane Gay: I think happiness is extraordinarily important. And I also think its incredibly elusive.

Jeremy O. Harris: I think Ive gotten more comfortable being unhappy as Ive gotten older.

David Lynch: Bliss is our nature. Were supposed to be happy. Were not supposed to be sad. Were not supposed to be suffering. Were supposed to be happy campers enjoying life and being kind to one another, and getting along, and making sure that were all happy and were all together on this beautiful trip.

Roddy Ricch: Being happy, its all just about perspective.

Chelsea Manning: Its the absence of feeling overwhelmed.

Tracy Morgan: Im looking to make people feel happy. Thats why I do what I do.

Samantha Bee: I guess were all striving to achieve it. Isnt that what were all trying to do?

Drew Barrymore: Even though I dont know what it is exactly, its what I wish for everyone.

Chris Heath is a GQ correspondent.

What else inspires happiness for our 12 interviewees? Read more about the music, the art, and the fashion that they discussed with Chris Heath.

A version of this story originally appears in the February 2021 issue with the title "The Happiness Project."

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The Happiness Project: 12 Culture-Shapers on How to Find Joy in Tough Times - GQ Magazine