David Sedaris

And she's so generous, right?

She never became bitter.

She never felt like, you know, because her husband left her for someone else, she never took that out on her.

Other women, you know, there's a generosity there.

And, you know, if you've spent your youth well, then you think, well, you know, I had my turn to be young and I really took full advantage of it.

I mean, if you hadn't taken advantage of it or if you were miserable when you were young, then I could see how you might get old and then you're just bitter and you're like, it's not fair, you know.

I had a miserable youth and now I'm old and miserable too on top of it.

And I had this wonderful friend named Gretchen Anderson who died, and she was 95, and she died last year.

And it was the same thing, just such a generous person, just always curious, always.

And I just modeled myself after those two women, really.

I dress like them now, too.

If you're just joining us, my guest is writer David Sedaris.

His new essay collection is called The Land and Its People.

More after a break.

This is Fresh Air.

In the last chapter of your new book, you reminisce about when you first moved to New York in 1990 and how broke you were then and the writer you now are living on the Upper East Side, the inner monologue that you're having about money.

It seems to be on display in the book.

And I'm curious, like in 93, after your seminal Santa Land piece ran on NPR, you sat for an interview with The New York Times and you discussed being offered jobs to write soap operas, films, I think even an episode of Seinfeld.

And the reason you turned it all down was because, quote, if you start making that kind of money, then you have to keep making that kind of money.

And that's not really what I want to do right now.