David Sedaris

By: Nicole Albertson | June 02, 2008 |

It has been four years since his last book Barrel Fever and almost 10 years since his record-breaking smash Me Talk Pretty One Day, but acclaimed author David Sedaris is stepping back into the limelight with a brand-new collection of short stories with his latest When You Are Engulfed in Flames, out June 3. His witty and unknowingly sarcastic sense of humor has driven millions of fans to his sold-out book signings and readings, and catapulted him to the top of the literary world.
The former New Yorker is now spending his time floating between London and Paris, living on a cloud with longtime partner, Hugh, and capturing every awkward moment along the way. Whether discussing next-door neighbors, a smokeless vacation in Tokyo, hilariously odd family moments or his acclamation to French life, Sedaris is not afraid to talk about the simply random moments that make up his seemingly normal life.
We tracked Sedaris down at his home in France to find out about his upcoming book, the scandalous French president, why he quit smoking in Tokyo, his outlook on exaggeration and feeling like an outsider during the ’70s.

Malibu Magazine: How did you come up with the name for your new book?

David Sedaris: I went to Tokyo for three months to quit smoking, and when I was in Kyoto, I stayed in a hotel and they had a little booklet called “Best Knowledge of Disaster Damage Prevention and Favors to Ask of You.” It was broken into different chapters, and one of the chapters was, “When You Check Into a Hotel Room,” and then, “When You Find a Fire,” and then, “When You Are Engulfed in Flames.” I thought that last one had a nice ring to it.

MM: How long have you been living in France?

DS: I have been living here for 10 years, which is a surprise to me. Now, we sort of half live in England, so we go back and forth between here and London. I have never really been engaged (in France). Someone came up to me a couple of months ago and said, “Everyone is so worried about the election.” And I said “What election?” I didn’t even know that there was a mayoral election. I mean, I know people are on strike if there was something I wanted to do, like, if I want to take a train and there are no trains. Then I think, “Oh, right. Everyone’s on strike.” But I’m just not terribly engaged. In England, I am. I read all the newspapers and watch the news, and try to have an understanding of what’s going on. But (in Paris), I’m just on my own little cloud.

MM: While it is nothing new, there is a lot of drama in politics lately. Between The Eliot Spitzer scandal in New York and the one surrounding France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, how do you think the French handle scandal differently than Americans?

DS: Well it’s sort of a scandal here just because he was so … almost courting publicity about it. He would be seen kissing Carla Bruni by the paparazzi. It’s weird. Sarkozy was saying, “Look, I’m not telling you to follow me on vacation and take my picture everywhere I go. I’m not making you do that.” But then the French are sort of suggesting he is, that there is something American about the way he is doing all of this. Part of it is people really want to hate him, but he hasn’t done enough to earn their hatred yet, so they will point at anything. Former presidents have done that very thing and that wasn’t flashy. It is just one of those nuisances that I still do not understand.

But you know, I was watching the Republican debate — someone showed me how to work that YouTube thing. So, they had the Republican presidential debate on YouTube, and (YouTube has this thing that says), “Why don’t you watch this?” So, I thought “OK. If you want me to.” So, here are all the Republican candidates, and there are questions from around the country turned in. One of the questions for Ruldoph Giuliani was, “Do you believe every word in the Bible?” And then a question to John McCain was “What is your favorite kind of weapon and how many do you own?” Now that I’m living in France, both of those questions (seemed) so inappropriate and so bizarre and so wrong to me. You would never ask a candidate here if he believed in every word of the Bible. It just did not apply at all. It would be a joke. If somebody asked that it would just be assumed it was a joke because nobody cares about that kind of thing. It has nothing to do with the reason why you elect a president.

MM: One part of your book focuses on the fact that you quit smoking.

DS: Well, I only quit smoking because all of the decent hotels have gone nonsmoking, and I travel for at least two months out of the year in the United States. It’s easy to go to 30 cities in 30 days when you’re staying at the Four Seasons — trust me — but when you’re staying at a Marriott suite outside of town on that strip between the muffler shop and the waffle restaurant, then it’s not easy. And that’s were I was being put because all the good places were nonsmoking. I finally said, “OK. All right. Fine.” But I wasn’t happy about it. That’s the only reason I quit. Someone told me that the best way to quit was to change your environment, so I went to Tokyo for three months.

MM: Isn’t Tokyo a big smoking society?

DS: They are, but it’s against the law to smoke on the street in Tokyo because so many people were getting burned by lit cigarettes. So, inside you can smoke your head off, in an office or a restaurant or a coffee shop. But when you quit smoking, sometimes you need to be around a lot of cigarette smoke, so this was perfect.

MM: Through your agency, you have a reading list for your fans. Have you read any of your competing authors: Augustine Burroughs, James Frey or David Eggers?

DS: I like Dave Eggers an awful lot. I just got his last book, What is the What? But I haven’t started reading that.

MM: Do you think your writing style has influenced a new kind of writer and therefore a new kind of reader?

DS: I get a lot of letters from students. Sometimes people will send me something they wrote and say, “Oh, you should read this. Everybody says a write just like you.” And I think, “Oh, my goodness is that what I sound like?” You can’t control what people think of you. Writing gives you the illusion of control. You write something and you’re led to believe you can sway people, but you actually can’t.

MM: The Oprah disaster with James Frey brought you into a very heated debate about the authenticity of your work. While Frey was completely discredited, you have only been criticized by The New Republic for exaggerating your personal stories. Do you think that Frey’s exaggerations were that different than yours?

DS: I have been asked in interviews probably a thousand times if I exaggerate and I say, “Boy, do I.” I exaggerate. I would exaggerate even more if I could. I’ve written stories about how much I exaggerate. I exaggerate. So, when the New Republic tried to pull a “gotcha,” there is no gotcha because I’ve always been very up-front about the way I write. I guess that’s what I didn’t understand. Basically, I think their headline should have been, “Humorist exaggerates for comedic effect,” which just seems normal to me. I guess I just didn’t understand what the story was. And as far as James Frey, I think what’s incredibly interesting about James Frey is that it happened three years ago and people are still talking about it.
When the government lied about weapons in Iraq, nobody said anything. But a fucked-up alcoholic writes a book about being a fucked-up alcoholic and then he fudges the truth, and people are like, “That fucked-up alcoholic lied to us!” well, you can’t say he didn’t warn you.
But the extent that people were upset was completely out of proportion. My understanding is it’s not like he wasn’t an alcoholic, it’s not like he didn’t go to a rehab center. While I’m not defending what he did, the fact that people are still talking about it three years later is creepy to me.

MM: How has the criticism changed your writing?

DS: Not at all. The fact checkers at The New Yorker are relentless. Plus he was talking about a book that was written 10 years ago.

MM: Your sister Amy has been making a name for herself with coffee table books and guest spots on TV shows. Is there any rivalry between you two?

DS: No. I mean, what we do is completely different. I’m not an actor and I’m not comfortable on television and I wouldn’t want to be in a movie. It’s just not my thing, and she wouldn’t write for The New Yorker.

MM: Your writing style is very self-deprecating. You are a self-proclaimed outsider, and you make fun of yourself and all of the ridiculous things that you and your family do. But how can you think that you don’t in if the literary world sings your praises and concert halls are sold out across the nation when you speak?

DS: I suppose living in a foreign country you come to feel like an outsider — because you are. You’re a foreigner. So, in that sense I still feel like one. I mean, I guess I felt like one growing up. It is different for younger people today, but for someone my age growing up, if you were homosexual at that time — in the ’60s or early ’70s — you felt ostracized even if you didn’t admit that you were a homosexual. You just feel that you are very different than everyone else. So, I felt like an outsider when I was in junior high and high school. And I guess what would make me feel that way now is being a foreigner. You know, I don’t belong here.

MM: How does your lifestyle vary living in the United States as opposed to France?

DS: I don’t think about it too often. It’s good when I come to the United States and go on tour; it’s very nice. And I read in theaters and I sign books and I meet people, but then I just come back to my real life where I am just a nobody and a foreigner, and sort of in the dark about a lot of things. I don’t think it would be good to live like that all the time — for people to be nice to you for no reason and then, you know, I wouldn’t have anything to write about.

MM: You are a unique balance between socially awkward and commercially hilarious. How do you transfer your dry, witty, bitter — and sometimes disturbing — humor to mainstream audiences?

DS: I never had to really try. I don’t know. I think maybe I’m just mainstream. I never feel like, “How can I make this palatable?” Instead, I just do it the way I want and people seem to go for it. I think I’m actually a very mainstream person. Like when I write about my relationship, I don’t write about sex. I just write about trying to make a life with somebody in a way that anybody could relate to. But if I emphasize the sex part of it, then I think a lot of people would think, “Oh, I could have done without the bit about the anal intercourse. That was a bit too much for me.” But I don’t leave it out because I want to be mainstream; it’s just not my topic. I couldn’t write about that with a straight face anyway. I have always sort of gone with what I think is funny.

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