Vice President JD Vance spoke at The Heritage Foundation Tuesday before the private premiere of a new docuseries from Angel Studios based on author Rod Dreher’s book “Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents,” which tells the story of Soviet Union-era Christian dissidents.

“I would not be standing here were it not for Rod Dreher,” said the vice president, noting how a viral interview with Dreher helped his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” become a bestseller.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of Vance’s remarks.

Thanks, Kevin [Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation] for that very kind introduction, and of course, for your leadership and stewardship of this incredible organization, which has been such an important part of the conservative conversation—and when we get the opportunity—of conservative governance in the United States of America going back, of course, to the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and doing a lot of good work since then.

So, thank you, and thanks to my dear friend, Rod Dreher, who has written a number of important books. But I think, Rod, this is your first time you’ve ever converted a book into a film, is that right?

So, Rod just follows in my footsteps, it turns out. He writes books, they do pretty well, he turns them into movies, and hopefully, you’ll sell some more copies.

But let me say just a couple of words about my friendship with Rod Dreher. He showed me backstage a French interview that he’d done with a guy who wasn’t very kind to Rod when he gave this interview in French. And you look at the subheader on the screen, and it says, “Rod Dreher, Ami de JD Vance.”

I don’t speak especially good French, but I guess what that means is “friend of JD Vance,” which maybe was meant to tarnish you in that country.

But I will say, Rod, that you are a true friend. And I wouldn’t be standing here were it not for Rod Dreher. And I think a lot of people don’t realize how important he was in the formative years of what became this massive bestselling book [Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy”], which, of course, launched me into a public career, launched me into a political career from there, and helped me become the vice president of the United States.

And in particular, when the book came out, I think our initial print run was about 10,000 copies. And I remember thinking to myself, if this book sells 10,000 copies, I guess that’s a pretty good outcome for a first-time author, a first-time book.

And the book came out, I did one interview on TV. The book sold a little bit better than we thought it would sell, but it never hit the bestseller list, it was never really a fixture of the mainstream conversation. And then I went to England with my wife, and at the time, we didn’t have any kids and we were sort of driving around the English countryside, and I got an invite from an author that I knew a little bit.

I had read some of what Rod had written before, certainly at his

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