VIDEO: David Sedaris Gets Humbled on a Plane

by Ben Apatoff

The Washington Post’s On Leadership video series has featured big names ranging from Iraqi women’s rights activist Suaad Allami to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, but for camera shy author David Sedaris, the series’ editors chose to animate the episode. Here the bestselling author and frequent New Yorker contributor recounts a plane ride experience to his boyfriend Hugh and receives a humbling lesson. As Sedaris notes:

“Someone said a while ago, you should always marry your conscience. And Hugh and I, my boyfriend, we’ve been together for 23 year years, so I didn’t marry my conscience, but I live with him. Hugh is a really decent person in ways that can be really, really irritating. I’m grateful for it though, because Hugh’s not the kind of person who would say ‘Oh, it’s OK to cheat’ or ‘Everybody steals a little something sometimes’ or ‘So what if you hurt that person’s feelings? They had it coming.’”