David Sedaris on Crystal Meth

Elizabeth Day interviewed David Sedaris for her How to Fail podcast, and asked him “What’s crystal meth like?”. His reply:

Oh, it just gives you, you know, you’re brilliant when you take crystal meth. You know, you’re just brilliant. And you have a lot to say.

And you feel amazing until it wears off. And then all you care about is getting more. And then when you crash, it’s like awful, you know, it’s just the lowest you’ve just ever been.

So you just got to keep it up. So you don’t ever feel that way. And you, you know, in my case, you know, you wake up a year and a half later.

And I mean, I just lucked out. My dealer moved town and there was no one to take her place. So I was like Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues.

I know that’s such an old reference. I was just, you know, rolling on the floor and, you know, for days. And then I just thought, I don’t ever want to go through that again.

And she moved back to town and she hung her shingle back up. But I was like, nope, not doing that anymore. And later I had friends who would have math and stuff, or I’d be to parties and there’d be math.

And I never did it again just because I knew I’d be right back there. And if I was going to die in a few months, I wouldn’t do it. It’s ugly.