Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author questions giving human names or gendered titles to inanimate objects that lack human qualities.
In plain terms
Sedaris asks why we name things like Lady Crack Pipe when they are just objects.
What can you take from it?
People project personality onto objects unnecessarily.

Where it applies

  • naming things
  • collecting
  • addiction

Putting it to work

  • understanding attachment
  • questioning labels
  • simplicity

Questions to consider

  • Why do we name objects?
  • When do you assign personality to things?

Another view

The observation critiques language habits but may overlook cultural naming traditions.

More from David Sedaris

  1. They were nothing like the French people I had imagined. If anything, they were too kind, too generous and too knowledgeable in the fields of plumbing and elec…

    Permalink to quote #6
  2. After a few months in my parents' basement, I took an apartment near the state university, where I discovered both crystal methamphetamine and conceptual art. …

    Permalink to quote #8
  3. 'You kids think you invented sex,' my mother was fond of saying. But hadn't we? With no instruction manual or federally enforced training period, didn't we all…

    Permalink to quote #5

Related quotes

  1. I dislike it when instead of saying Jew they say Hebrew or Israelite, or Semite, I do not like it and why should a Negro want to be called colored. Why should …

    Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein quote #79
  2. The Macedonian language is actually an artifact produced for primarily political reasons.

    Vittore PisaniVittore Pisani quote #1
  3. Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.

    Angela CarterAngela Carter quote #1