David Sedaris Quotes

When it comes to everybody else's thing and their lane and their timing, I'm never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody's biggest mistake if that's their intention.

My parents have always been very honest with me.

It's very hard to balance being there for somebody else and taking care of yourself.

There are two kinds of power you have to fight. The first is the money, and that's just our system. The other is the people close around you, knowing when to accept their criticism, knowing when to say no.

As novices, we think we're entirely responsible for the way people treat us. I have long since learned that we are responsible only for the way we treat people.

I try to stay in line and not be a jerk. I've always been conscious that if I really screw up, people might notice.

I think women who don't understand boundaries are fascinating.

I'm not buddy-buddy with the players. If they need a buddy, let them buy a dog.

I've learned that I am allowed to say what I like and what I don't like. And I've learned that I have to be professional and not be everyone's best friend.

My wife and I have built trust with our children and have always had open communication.

It doesn't worry me what anyone says, except when publicity hurts others.

My mother treats me exactly the same as she has always done, and the same as my older sisters. She tells me off when I need it, and sometimes I do need telling to go to my room or to do my homework.

My parents have always been very open.

In my mind, as long as I did what was right for me, I was cool. But that's not the way it works. You have to think about other people and take their feelings into account.

I never really felt free to talk a lot about my family life because I don't want to sacrifice anybody else's privacy. If you look through the archives, you will see, for example, no pictures of my children. That is not because I don't love them. I think I've been a really good dad; at least, I try to be.

I always ask myself, would I want someone to do something that wasn't comfortable for them just to please me? And the answer is no.

I'm never proper or careful, but I never curse in front of my mother, either.

Filtering can be a very good thing when it comes to human relationships and familial harmony. Yeah, filtering is often an absolute necessity.

I could never give relationship advice to anybody!

If you write to me and it takes a day for me to write back, don't take it personally.

I spend a lot of time wondering how to best support the people that I love, because I think sometimes that means getting out of the way. When should I leave them alone to have their own life?

I like communicating and being open and committing. That, for me, has always been something that I like to do.

I put a lot of effort into not upsetting people and trying to do things the right way, so I feel I can reserve the right to complain when I feel let down by others.

You know what takes effort? Being kind, being patient, being respectful, telling someone how you feel politely instead of just avoiding them for six weeks.

Any responsible essayist or memoir writer who's writing about herself is not just saying, 'Here's what happened,' and opening up her diary. There needs to be consideration of other people's feelings.