Living in a foreign country is one of those things that everyone should try at least once. My understanding was that it completed a person, sanding down the rough provincial edges and transforming you into a citizen of the world. What I find appealing in life abroad was the inevitable sense of helplessness it would inspire. Equally exciting would be the work involved in overcoming that helplessness. There would be a goal involved, and I like having goals.

Sedaris was raised in a suburb of Raleigh North Carolina. Sedaris and his sister Amy shared "The Talent Family" credit on the latter's short-lived sketch comedy show Exit 57 while David was a contributing writer.

Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating and often concerns his family life his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh North Carolina Greek heritage jobs education drug use obsessive behaviors and his life in France London and the South Downs. He publiDavid Sedarisd his first collection of essays and short stories Barrel Fever in 1994. In 2010 he released a collection of anthropomorphic stories Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary.