Alcohol
Quotes - Alcohol saved my life!
“A
late arrival had the impression of lots of loud people unnecessarily grouped
within a smoke-blue space between two mirrors gorged with reflections. Because,
I suppose, Cynthia wished to be the youngest in the room, the women she used to
invite, married or single, were, at the best, in their precarious forties; some
of them would bring from their homes, in dark taxis, intact vestiges of good
looks, which, however, they lost as the party progressed. It has always amazed
me - the capacity sociable weekend revelers have of finding almost at once, by
a purely empiric but very precise method, a common denominator of drunkenness,
to which everybody loyally sticks before descending, all together, to the next
level. The rich friendliness of the matrons was marked by tomboyish overtones,
while the fixed inward look of amiably tight men was like a sacrilegious parody
of pregnancy. Although some of the guests were connected in one way or another
with the arts, there was no inspired talk, no wreathed, elbow-propped heads,
and of course no flute girls. From some vantage point where she had been
sitting in a stranded mermaid pose on the pale carpet with one or two younger
fellows, Cynthia, her face varnished with a film of beaming sweat, would creep
up on her knees, a proffered plate of nuts in one hand, and crisply tap with
the other the athletic leg of Cochran or Corcoran, an art dealer, ensconced, on
a pearl-grey sofa, between two flushed, happily disintegrating ladies.
At
a further stage there would come spurts of more riotous gaiety. Corcoran or
Coransky would grab Cynthia or some other wandering woman by the shoulder and
lead her into a corner to confront her with a grinning imbroglio of private
jokes and rumors, whereupon, with a laugh and a toss of her head, he would
break away. And still later there would be flurries of intersexual chumminess,
jocular reconciliations, a bare fleshy arm flung around another woman's husband
(he standing very upright in the midst of a swaying room), or a sudden rush of
flirtatious anger, of clumsy pursuit-and the quiet half smile of Bob Wheeler
picking up glasses that grew like mushrooms in the shade of chairs. ("The
Vane Sisters")”
―
Vladimir Nabokov, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the
1940s to Now
“Lucy
preferred gin and tonics during the summer and switched over to whiskey sours
in the winter. At dinner, a sit-down affair with the family, Lucy drank
whatever the Temerlins drank, including expensive French wines. "She never
gets obnoxious, even when smashed to the brink of unconsciousness," wrote
Maurice, revealing more about the chimp's alcoholism than perhaps he intended.
At one point, he tried to wean Lucy off the good stuff and onto Boone's Farm
apple wine. Assuming she would delight in the fruity swill, he purchased a case
and filled her glass one night at dinner. Lucy took a sip of the apple wine,
noticed her parents were drinking something else, and put her glass down. She
then graabbed Maurice's glass of Chablis and polished it off. She finished
Jane's next. Not another sip of Boone's farm ever touched her lips.”
―
Elizabeth Hess, Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
“If
hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade
gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of pleasure.”
―
Tahir Shah, House of the Tiger King : The Quest for a Lost City
“You're
walking down Fool's Street, Laura used to say when he was drinking, and she had
been right. He had known even then that she was right, but knowing had made no
difference; he had simply laughed at her fears and gone on walking down it,
till finally he had stumbled and fell. Then, for a long time, he stayed away,
and if he had stayed away long enough he would have been all right; but one
night he began walking down it again - and met the girl. It was inevitable that
on Fool's Street there should be women as well as wine.
He
had walked down it many times in many different towns, and now he was walking
down it once again in yet another town. Fool's Street never changed, no matter
where you went, and this one was no different from the others. The same
skeletonic signs bled beer names in vacant windows; the same winos sat in
doorways nursing muscatel; the same drunk tank awaited you when at last your
reeling footsteps failed. And if the sky was darker than usual, it was only
because of the rain which had begun falling early that morning and been falling
steadily ever since.”
―
Robert F. Young, The Worlds of Robert F. Young
“A
substantial daily intake of alcohol was the perfect way to stay in shape.”
―
Simon Napier-Bell, I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch: A Fantastic Tale of Boys,
Booze and how Wham! Were sold to China
“Need
'nother whiskey. Whiskey chaser. Gotta get two men drunk."
Mr.
Cohan placed both hands on the bar. "Mr. Walsh," he said severely,
"in Gavagan's we will serve a man a drink to wet his whistle, or even
because his old woman has pasted him with a dornick, but a drink to get drunk
with I do not sell. Now I'm telling you you've had enough for tonight, and in
the morning you'll be thanking me..." ("My Brother's Keeper")”
―
Fletcher Pratt, Tales from Gavagan's Bar
“I
used to be better at hangovers, back in Ireland. Of course, then I had one
every day," he reflected. "I had more practice.”
―
Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
“Alcohol
is a straight-up hard drug. That’s not a moral judgment; it’s a scientific
fact. On a biochemical level, alcohol affects the brain in the same way as
Valium, Xanax, Ambien, GHB, and Quaaludes. All of them act on the GABA
receptors in the brain and thus qualify as a type of drug called a GABAergic.
Taking these drugs in small quantities can produce positive feelings and
relaxation, but consuming too much can seriously mess you up. In fact,
GABAergics can become so physically addictive that, in extreme cases,
attempting to quit cold turkey can kill you.
But
thanks to the wonders of advertising, people don’t think of alcohol that way.
The beverage industry has spent billions of dollars to brainwash people into
believing that drinking booze is fun and harmless: it’s how cool people
socialize. Drinking makes you more popular and more confident, and if you play
your cards right, it might even get you laid. As a result of this
industrial-level gaslighting, it’s not uncommon for politicians to publicly
proclaim that recreational drug use is morally repugnant and a blight on
society—while simultaneously, those same politicians drink alcohol all the damn
time.”
―
Sam Kelly, Human History on Drugs: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful
Look at History Under the Influence
“You’ll
start to feel dizzy,” he warned, “lighter, funnier... But any more, and the
spirits will take over your mind. Better a small flame to keep warm than a
roaring one that burns the house down.”
―
Joseph Moukarzel, The Travelers: An Ancient Adventure of Gold, Magic and
Forgotten Worlds
“Alcohol
saved my life!”
―
Arvo Zylo
“I
love drugs, but I hate hangovers, and the hatred of the hangover wins by a
landslide every time.”
―
Margaret Cho
“Drink
makes you more truthful, I've heard."
"No,
it doesn't do that," said Joanna. "It makes you self-destruct.”
―
Melanie Golding, The Hidden
“Metal
music is like alcohol: the more you consume it, the heavier you can tolerate
it.”
―
Criss Jami
“Presumably
older women shouldn't drink, she thought, or women of a certain age. But what
might that age be?”
―
Barbara Pym, A Few Green Leaves
“The
first drink, for me anyway, brings about a significant change in emotional
state. I've come to realise that each subsequent drink represents an attempt to
replicate that glorious change of state the first drink achieved. This
endeavour is futile; I've laboured in vain, because each drink brings about a
smaller change of state.”
―
Adrian Chiles, The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less
“Look
at how Daddy and the Seal talk," Anne Mom would say to Vera. "Look at
their body language, so relaxed." "Friendship must get a lot easier
when you can start to drink," Vera remarked....”
―
Gary Shteyngart, Vera, or Faith
