We saw David Sedaris last night. It was excellent. The auditorium was packed, it was a crowd that you don't normally associate with a Midwestern city- the NPR crowd.

One of the things that struck me about his writing, other than the humor, is that it appears to be effortless, like he's making it up on the spot. It's as though we are sitting around the kitchen table and he is telling a story about something that happened to him that day. Perhaps that's an element of a good writer, they fool you into thinking you could have told the story as well as they.

Maybe it is that effortless for him, but I doubt it. He mentioned that he doesn't like to read things that he's written in the past because they appear "clunky". His storytelling is a craft which he has developed.