A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.
Interpretation
A powerful short story can transform one's perspective, leaving them both changed and uncomfortable.
In this quote, David Sedaris expresses how a compelling short story can evoke deep emotional and mental experiences that alter his self-perception. The process of being taken 'out of oneself' signifies a journey through a narrative that provides new insights, and the return is marked by an unsettling recognition of one's changed identity, reflecting the profound impact of literature on personal growth.
In practice
During a book club meeting discussing the transformative power of literature.
It's a common mistake for vacationing Americans to assume that everyone around them is French and therefore speaks no English whatsoever. [...] An experienced traveler could have told by looking at my shoes that I wasn't French. And even if I were French, it's not as if English is some mysterious tribal dialect spoken only by anthropologists and a small population of cannibals.
I hoped our lives would continue this way forever, but inevitably the past came knocking. Not the good kind that was collectible but the bad kind that had arthritis.
States vote to take away my marriage rights, and even though I don't want to get married, it tends to hurt my feelings. I guess what bugs me is that it was put to a vote in the first place. If you don't want to marry a homosexual, then don't. But what gives you the right to weigh in on your neighbor's options? It's like voting whether or not redheads should be allowed to celebrate Christmas.
People ask me, 'Have you ever considered doing stand-up?' To me it would be less offensive if someone asked me, 'Have you ever considered dental implants?'
Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!
whenever I read a passage that moves me, I transcribe it in my diary, hoping my fingers might learn what excellence feels like.
I was always the first person in the theater all the time. If it was an eight-o'clock curtain, I was here at five-thirty, and it wasn't that I needed to vocalize, because I was all warmed up. I couldn't wait for it to begin.
Playwriting is the last great bastion of the individual writer. It's exciting precisely because it's where the money isn't. Money goes to safety, to consensus. It's not individualism.
The thing is, 'Discworld' had been going on for a very long time, and I've written children's books as well. Usually when people have a really big series they franchise it, which I thought is a bit of a no-no, so I thought what I'd do is I'd franchise it to myself.
I want to know one thing, what is color?
A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.
Horror, of all the genres, is the only one that can provoke an involuntary visceral reaction.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.