David Sedaris—more specifically, his writing and also perhaps his fashion sense—has a way of sticking with you. At least according to his numerous memoirs and essays, Sedaris’s life seems excessively weighted toward the madcap and bizarre. Which other author wrote a short story about having a benign fatty tumor removed from his body … and then carried it to South Carolina in a cooler, where he fed it to a cancer-stricken sea turtle he named “Calypso”? We can only imagine what treasures will appear in Happy-Go-Lucky, his new essay collection, out May 31. He is also collaborating with Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli on the house’s Narratives II project. Sedaris, along with 16 other authors, has contributed an original piece of writing to appear in a global advertising campaign. Here, Sedaris shares his key components to the good life. —Ashley Baker
Airline: Cathay Pacific.
Airport: Kastrup, Copenhagen Airport. They sell great bread there. It’s like cake.
Alibi: “I was out of town.”
App: The one that gives you directions.
Bag: Lately I like a Visvim bag that looks just like a paper grocery bag but is made of Lamb Leather.
Bedtime: 2:30 a.m.
Bike: A brown Raleigh three-speed.
Birthday: Something in mid-October.
Boyfriend/girlfriend: I’m pretty happy with the boyfriend I have now, Hugh Hamrick. A good girlfriend is Dawn Erickson. We dated in 1976 and are still in touch. Both of them are extraordinarily capable.
