As a writer, I’ve admired David Sedaris from afar ever since hearing a live reading from one of his earliest seminal essays Santaland Diaries (circa 1992) recounting his experience applying for a job as an elf at Macy’s during the Christmas holiday when he was in his early 30s. At a mere 5’5”, Sedaris was a shoo-in for the job and despite the meager income it generated at the time, the story paid dividends beyond Sedaris’ wildest imagination, forming the foundation of a career that would go on to span decades. The essay (recorded for National Public Radio) is re-aired annually and has become a staple of the holiday season, much like the Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life. It catapulted Sedaris to the forefront of the literary scene as a wry humorist who could mine the humor out of mundane often soul-crushing experiences.
Thirty-some years later, Sedaris is still at it, churning out collections of essays which routinely grace the New York Times bestseller list with head-scratching titles like A Carnival of Snackery and When You Are Engulfed in Flames turning the dross of quotidian minutiae into gold. Despite his low-key persona or perhaps because of it, Sedaris has emerged as a cultural icon, known for his unassuming manner and dry delivery. Back in the day, Sedaris was a frequent guest on David Letterman, bested only by his famously kooky sister Amy Sedaris best known for Strangers with Candy. He was awarded the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2001 though he has groused [in jest I suppose] at being passed over for the illustrious Mark Twain Prize, though he certainly doesn’t want for fame or accolades. He has authored 13 books over the course of his career filled with enough biographical data to justify a university curriculum in Sedaris-ology. Through it all, his trademark humor has remained remarkably consistent. During our hour-long phone conversation (as he was being driven to his next live reading on a multi-city national speaking tour), I had a chance to speak with him about his latest book The Land and Its People, his creative process, some of his pet peeves (there are many), cancel culture, politics, his whimsical sense of fashion, Jesus’ teeth and whether or not there’s an afterlife.
I just finished reading your book The Land and Its People and I particularly enjoyed the chapter where you talk about your relationship with your godson. Having no children of your own, you’ve really made an effort to involve yourself in his life, sending gifts and offering advice, despite his seeming disinterest. You’ve tried to instill the importance of work ethic.
Well, I had a job when I was his age. My parents made us all get jobs. But none of the people I know now who have kids have jobs. Or if they do, they’re just fake jobs. Like they’re consulting at a summer camp. It’s not a real job. They’re not putting on a McDonald’s uniform in the trenches, you know. It’s really important to have that experience, I think, because it gives you life-long empathy.
In the chapter “Friends,” you and your friend Dan had a few jobs together, right?
We sold popcorn, peanuts and drinks at the Dorton Arena [in North Carolina]. We had to say “Popcorn, Peanuts, Ice Cold Drinks.” We had to yell that over and over and over again. Every job I got fired from, I just cried and cried. It seemed so unfair to me, even if I hated the job. It’s one thing to quit, that’s your idea. But being fired is their idea. I was fired once from a job as a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. I had just moved there so I didn’t know the streets. It was a different time; you had to have a map with you. If I just had another week, I swear I could’ve gotten it.
Having authored some 13 books over the course of your career, it seems like you’ve excavated every aspect of your past, and yet you keep coming up with new material. Do you ever have a fear that you’ll run out of stories?
I’ve been keeping a diary for 50 years.
I’m always struck by the detail. Do you include that level of detail in your diary entries or is some of it from memory.
Quite often I do. Especially if it’s something that I think might lead to something. If it’s something that feels special to me. My friend Austin told me recently that he went to a Mexican restaurant in the suburbs of Seattle and the waiter referred to him as Bro-tato Chip. Austin told me about Bro-tato Chip. And then I made it a point to write down the name of the restaurant we were at, and what we had ordered. And what he was wearing. Because I thought this might come in handy. Bro-tato Chip. I never thought it would get any worse than “Bro.” But apparently, it can.
You’re very honest in your stories. And I think that’s what makes your writing so captivating. Are you as honest and direct in real life as you are in your writing?
No, it’s pretty hard for me. Like if I were uncomfortable and someone asks me, are you uncomfortable. I would say, not at all. I wouldn’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings. Like if they said, do you think I look good in this jacket. I would never say… you look awful in that jacket. I mean, if it were my sister Amy or Hugh, I would. But when it comes to other people, I probably wouldn’t. It’s not a good quality.
As a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, I wondered what you think of the whole controversy with Bari Weiss and her allegiance to the Trump administration.
A lot of people have suggested that I quit. I’m just not sure who that serves. I’m not even a big enough presence that anyone would even know that I quit. I don’t understand what she’s doing there. And I don’t understand why she’s messing with something that works. I don’t see the point in it.
You talk about your mom in the chapter titled “Cool Mom” and the impact she had on your writing.
I tend to be like my mother in that when I was a child, they’d go to the dry-cleaner and my mother would talk to everybody. So, she would have a conversation with the person at the dry-cleaner. And then you’d hear her talk about it later in the day, and you’d think oh, she made it more interesting than what it was. And then you’d hear her talk about it again, and then all of a sudden there was dialogue – things that she’d wished she’d said. You would hear her work a story over the course of a day until the end of the day it was all polished. I tend to do the same thing. So, I repeat myself a lot. Hugh [Sedaris’ boyfriend/husband] will say to me, you told that story 4 times already today. And I’m like, yeah, and I’m gonna tell it eight more times, so get used to it.
How long does it take for you to workshop your material? Like for this book, how much did you read it in public before you said, okay this is ready to publish.
There were things in the book that were read on stage 50 times at least. And they’re rewritten like 16, 17, 18 times. There was something I rewrote from my last speaking tour that was about feeding crows. And I think I’m on the 18th draft. And so now, I’m ready to send it to my agent and have her send it to The New Yorker. Cause I’ve learned everything I can on my own. There’s nothing else I’m gonna learn without a professional. I like to do it that way.
Do you get interesting feedback from The New Yorker?
I get my best feedback from the audience. It’s not that we talk about it. I can read on stage for an hour and a half, and then I can sign books for you know, three hours. But no one’s going to mention anything I read on stage. It’s like that never happened. They’ll ask me questions, but not about that. Whether they laugh or they don’t laugh, or whether they make a sound, they go aww. Or they groan. So, they tell me that way. Or else they just check out. And I know they’ve checked out. I can feel it, you know. Then I think, okay, it gets boring here on the top of page four, I’ve gotta do something about that.
Do you have any favorite chapters from this current book?
Yeah, I think that the essay “Good Year” about my friend Dawn. I like that. Because I think it’s really hard to write about friendship. And I think I really captured our friendship. I captured the love that I feel for her. We’ve never discussed whatever love she feels for me, but I think I captured that too. And I think so many people have a “Dawn” in their lives. I’ve had a lot of people come up and say that. “Oh, this is my Dawn.” That makes me feel good. That makes me feel like I connected with people. That I did my job.
I also really liked the chapter about your first boyfriend who was so good-looking and you felt self-conscious about the disparity. Can you talk a little about that? You mentioned that you’re still in touch with him.
Yeah, I see him from time to time. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had boyfriends who were so much better looking than me. No one could ever believe we were together. And I don’t know why or how I’d get them. But you know, it does a number on you. I would want to accuse him of being shallow. But then I thought, wait a minute, aren’t I the shallow one? The one who has to be involved with a beautiful person. Doesn’t that make me shallow and not them? And you don’t want to admit that either. That doesn’t make you look good.
Like, someone said to my current boyfriend [husband] Hugh, they said he was handsome and he’s like “Me? Really?” And I was like, oh c’mon, you hear that all the time. I think you can drop the act of being shocked by it. It would be the same as people saying to me that I’m funny. But Hugh has never weaponized his beauty. Whereas my ex-boyfriend did. And boy, that’s a powerful weapon, you know?
How did you and Hugh meet?
When I first moved to New York, I only knew one person. And she was doing odd jobs and hired me to paint an apartment. We needed a ladder, and she knew a guy who had a ladder. And it was Hugh. So we went to his apartment and borrowed a ladder from him.
Did you hit it off pretty quickly?
He was still seeing someone at the time, a French guy. For me, personally, when I saw him, I thought, oh, okay, that’s settled. He is going to be my boyfriend. That was October, and then we got together in February. I was not part of his breakup with the French guy. Hugh didn’t break up with him because of me or anything. They were in a long-distance relationship, and it wasn’t working out. So, when we met up in February, he was single by then. Because I didn’t want to break up anybody’s relationship. But it was all a part of my plan, you know. Hugh had no idea I’d been thinking he was my boyfriend for months. We hadn’t even seen or spoken to each other.
When you say that was your plan, did you manifest it?
There was a book that came out like 20 or 30 years ago. I can’t remember the name, but it was about wishing something into existence. Sometimes people will wish for something just for ten minutes. I’m talking about really investing in it. Like hours a day. I would get on my bike and fantasize about this life that I would have. How I would move to New York City, and I would live in another country and I would have this boyfriend and write books. I never asked anybody to give me a reading or read my writing. I always waited to be invited. So I didn’t go out of my way. I didn’t promote myself. Never anything like that. I just daydreamed, you know. Harder than anybody else.
What do you think about cancel culture? There are a lot of people in the public eye who we really don’t hear from much anymore, like Rosanne Barr and Kevin Spacey and Woody Allen. Do you think that once people have been canceled there should be a statute of limitations to some extent where they’re allowed back in polite society.
Well I have to say, that’s a problem, right? Let’s say, if Rosanne Barr were convicted of a crime. And then they said, okay you have to go to prison for six months. Then she’d be in prison for six months and she’d get out. She’ll have served her time. But the way we do it, you have to go away and we’ll decide when you can come back. I kind of like that Louis CK was told to go away. And he went away for close to 9 months, and then he’s like, okay, I’m coming back. And I really admire him for thinking, I’m sorry I’ve got a career here, this is what I do.
What do you think of the whole looks-maxing phenomenon?
It just makes me sad. If you’re young like that, you’re already good-looking. You know what I mean? You’re wearing your youth. So why are you even bothering with all of this other shit. You already look amazing. But if it’s all about adding some volume to your cheekbones, it’s just sad to me. It’s like, what’re you worried about? You’re a kid. Worry about it 10, 20 years from now. Not when you’re already beautiful.
Let’s talk about fashion. When you appear on talk shows, you seem to be fearless about your outfits. You have a very distinctive style.
I love dressing up. You know, any excuse to dress up, I’ll dress up. It’s just fun for me. I’ve got a closet full of clothes, so I might as well wear them. I wake up in the morning and I lie in bed and think about what I’m going to wear to my desk. And I change clothes, sometimes four to five times a day. Because, like I said, I’ve got a lot of clothes, and I like swapping them out. I went on Bill Maher the other day and a friend of mine said I looked like I should’ve been hovering above a city in flames. I thought, that is exactly the look I was going for. Like a warlock. I like to dress now like I’m in a cult. I went to that afterparty for Stephen Colbert’s last show, and there was a rumor that the Pope might be there. And several people thought I was the Pope because of what I was wearing. At first I was insulted. And then I thought, well no, the Pope’s my age, so it wasn’t an age thing. But I was wearing like a burlap skirt that came to my ankles with this white – I can’t even call it a jacket – it was a white kind of a thing over it. And then I had lots of these different layers hanging down. And the layers were alternately beige and white. So actually, then I thought well that’s great. If someone says, I thought you were the Pope, that speaks highly of your clothing I think. And I don’t want to make people uncomfortable. Like sometimes people think, oh, what are your pronouns? But it’s different. I don’t wear makeup. I don’t want to be a woman. I just want to wear what I want to wear.
Do you get recognized a lot?
I get stopped maybe four times a day. It’s not a hardship. It’s not like you go to a restaurant and people film you while you’re eating. It’s lovely. It doesn’t bother me the least bit.
Switching to politics, how much of the current political climate occupies your daily thought. Do you focus on it a lot, or do you try to shut it out?
I focus on it a lot, but at the same time I refuse to let it ruin my life.
That’s a tricky balance.
Well, it is. I know people whose lives have been ruined by it. The news is bad enough. I don’t need anybody winding me up. I don’t need it pointed so that I’m actually not just saddened and concerned and angry, but just constantly outraged. I don’t know who that serves.
What did you think about the UFC cage match Trump hosted on the White House lawn as part of America’s 250th Anniversary?
It was such a disgrace in my opinion. Such a total disgrace. And then when that guy got up there and said that Michelle Obama is a man. It’s just a complete degradation of everything. Which was what he wanted, so mission accomplished I suppose.
You have some pet peeves.
Oh I have a million of them. In the hotel that I’m staying in, they put little mats on the floor. It’s a marble floor. So the mats get caught on the door when you try to open the door. Or those skirt hangers they put in closets? They all fall onto the floor the second you try to take a regular hanger out. People doing shit on their phones and not having headphones on. That’s my number one thing that bothers me. And a lot of times, I’ll be at the airport and you see airport employees on their break and they’re watching a game and they don’t have headphones on. I was in the airport the other day, I passed a pile of dog shit on my way to the baggage claim. A pile of dog shit on the floor at the airport. I’ve seen that five times now. Because people have their little service dogs. They’re walking along, looking at their phone and the dog’s shitting on the floor and they don’t even realize it. People say, oh the French love their dogs. You don’t see dogs inside grocery stores and department stores in France the way you do here. In New York, they’re just absolutely everywhere. There’s an American way with dogs that I just can’t stand. I was talking to someone and I asked, do you have kids? And she said, I have dogs. She was just dead to me after that. She had a bunch of questions, but she was just dead to me. She was just a corpse. That’s such an insult to people with kids. It’s not the same thing. You see dog mom. Number one Dog mom. I just hate all that shit.
If you had a dinner party where you could invite anyone, who would you invite?
Shirley Chisolm. I would want to hear her view on contemporary political life. She was such a dignified person. I think I already know what she’d say. But I’d like to hear it from her, in her voice.
Anyone else?
I supposed it would be Jesus. Because then the question would be like, what was your story? I don’t think he’s God’s son or anything like that. I’d ask, what was your adolescence like? Because you never hear about him when he was 12. Or say, did you ever have a pimple? What do you think Jesus’s teeth looked like. I mean really. I’d be really curious to see what Jesus’s teeth looked like.
Do you believe in an afterlife?
No. I feel like when you die, it’s just like turning a light off. I know people who think that our energy is so great, that it doesn’t dissipate. But I don’t think our energy is all that great. When a squirrel dies, it’s just curtains and that’s the end of the squirrel’s life. I don’t see any reason why we should be any different.
I’ve heard that when fans write to you, you respond. Do you still do that?
Yeah. I’ll get a sack of mail and I’ll answer it. And then I turn around and there’s another one. So then I started thinking, what if I just respond to interesting ones, or memorable ones. As it is now, I answer all my mail. Before I was writing professionally, I wrote to an author after reading a book I’d checked out from the library. She wrote me back and it just meant the world to me. It’s not hard to do.
To my surprise, and I daresay delight, I received a handwritten postcard in the mail a few days after our phone call from Sedaris himself. It was an unexpected gesture even though he’d asked for my address at the end of the interview. It was not the perfunctory type of missive but included a few personal questions for me based on our conversation which gave it that personal touch, so rare in this digital age.
The Land and Its People is now available at booksellers nationwide.
Last modified: August 16, 2026
