Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold,
But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm;
Besides I can tell where I am used well,
Such usage in heaven will never do well.
But if at the Church they would give us some Ale,
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
We'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day,
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray.
Then the Parson might preach, & drink, & sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birds.
And God, like a father rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as he,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel,
But kiss him, & give him both drink and apparel. William Blake, The Little Vagabond
I drink to stay warm and to kill selected memories. Conor Oberst
As a child I never felt wanted. My mother and I never got along. I suffered as a child watching my parents drink themselves to death. Susan Atkins, The Manson Family, interview Manson: Kill For Me
Britain has always been a nation of drinkers with plenty around to quench the thirst. In the Middle Ages beer was even preferred to water as it was less likely to contain dangerous bacteria. Timeshift: The Rules of Drinking, BBC 2012
Churchill, himself a heavy drinker, realised the importance of the role alcohol had to play. ibid.
I began to think vodka was my drink at last. It didn’t taste like anything, but it went straight down into my stomach like a sword swallowers’ sword and made me feel powerful and godlike. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
I don’t have a drinking problem. ’Cept when I can’t get a drink. Tom Waits
I hate the taste of alcohol. When I’m drinking, I’m drinking Red Bull. Paris Hilton
But when speakeasies re-opened as legal nightclubs business was poor. With neighbourhood liquor stores now open people could save money by drinking at home. Ken Burns, Jazz: The Gift 1929-1934, PBS 2001
Club Tropicana, drinks are free
Fun and sunshine – there’s enough for everyone. Wham! Club Tropicana, song 1983
I drink to make other people more interesting. Ernest Hemingway
I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have perilled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom. Edgar Allan Poe
Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe
Rain may fall, and wind may blow
And many miles be still to go
But under a tall tree will I lie
And let the clouds go sailing by. J R R Tolkien
Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you’re allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It’s like killing yourself, and then you’re reborn. I guess I’ve lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now. Charles Bukowski
I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
after four I’m under my host. Dorothy Parker, The Collected Dorothy Parker
Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol. Steve Martin
For the first twenty years of my life, I rocked myself to sleep. It was a harmless enough hobby, but eventually, I had to give it up. Throughout the next twenty-two years I lay still and discovered that after a few minutes I could drop off with no problem. Follow seven beers with a couple of scotches and a thimble of good marijuana, and it’s funny how sleep just sort of comes on its own. Often I never even made it to the bed. I’d squat down to pet the cat and wake up on the floor eight hours later, having lost a perfectly good excuse to change my clothes. I’m now told that this is not called ‘going to sleep’ but rather ‘passing out’, a phrase that carries a distinct hint of judgment. David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
‘Making rules about drinking can be the sign of an alcoholic,’ as Martin Amis once teasingly said to me. (Adorno would have savored that, as well.) Of course, watching the clock for the start-time is probably a bad sign, but here are some simple pieces of advice for the young. Don’t drink on an empty stomach: the main point of the refreshment is the enhancement of food. Don’t drink if you have the blues: it’s a junk cure. Drink when you are in a good mood. Cheap booze is a false economy. It’s not true that you shouldn’t drink alone: these can be the happiest glasses you ever drain. Hangovers are another bad sign, and you should not expect to be believed if you take refuge in saying you can’t properly remember last night. (If you really don’t remember, that’s an even worse sign.) Avoid all narcotics: these make you more boring rather than less and are not designed – as are the grape and the grain – to enliven company. Be careful about up-grading too far to single malt Scotch: when you are voyaging in rough countries it won’t be easily available. Never even think about driving a car if you have taken a drop. It’s much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don’t know quite why this is true but it just is. Don’t ever be responsible for it. Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
When you quit drinking you stop waiting. Caroline Knapp, Drinking: A Love Story
Not everyone who drinks is a poet. Some of us drink because we’re not poets. Dudley Moore
Now is the time to drink! Horace
My justification ‘s that most people my age spend a lot of time thinking about what they're going to do for the next five or ten years. The time they spend thinking about their life, I just spend drinking. Amy Winehouse
I’ve stopped drinking, but only when I’m asleep. George Best
I tried to give up drugs by drinking. Lou Reed
But if I wasn’t playing, I would drink Saturdays, then Sunday, then Monday. Then I would try and train and it was no good, then have another drink just to pass the day away. Paul Gascoigne
Beer – it’s the best damn drink in the world. Jack Nicholson
Laurence, would you like to get the drinks please? Tony would like a Bacardi and Coke with ice and lemon, Angela would like gin and tonic with ice and lemon, and I’d like a little fill-up. OK? Play for Today: Abigail’s Party, written and directed Mike Leigh, starring Alison Steadman ***** Beverly, BBC 1977
Come on, Sue. I’ll give you a little top-up. ibid.
It’s a fantastic drink Bacardi, isn’t it? ibid. Beverly to Tony, et al
Now who’s for another drink? ibid. Beverly
Sue, do you want a little drop of brandy? No? Tone? Angela, do you? ibid. Beverly
I don’t want to make trouble; all I want is a drink. All About Eve 1950 starring Bette Davis & Anne Baxter & Marilyn Monroe & George Sanders & Celeste Holm & Gary Merrill & Hugh Marlowe & Thelma Ritter & Gregory Ratoff & Barbara Bates et al, director Joseph L Mankiewicz, Monroe
Was it the fact that you got on the plane still drunk from the night before? Flight 2012 starring Denzel Washington & Don Cheadle & Kelly Reilly & Bruce Greenwood & John Goodman & Melissa Leo & Tamara Tunie & Nadine Velazquez & Brian Geraghty & Justin Martin & James Badge Dale et al, director Robert Zemeckis, co-pilot to pilot
I choose to drink. ibid. Washington
I’ve been lying about my drinking my whole life. ibid.
I drank the Vodka bottles on the plane. ibid.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. Proverbs 31:4-7