“Clare takes a mouthful, swallows it in a businesslike fashion, and says, “Well, that’s not so bad.”
“That’s a twenty-something-dollar bottle of wine.””

“The essay was impelled by Clare's anxiety that his poems were slipping out if fashion.”

“A bottle of wine was good company.”

“A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover”

“I buy wine according to the bottle design. After I get down the first glass it all tastes okay to me so I figure you go for something classy to look at on the table”

“He knows bad days. Bad days take him completely by surprise. They make him not trust the good days because it's likely something is lurking twenty-four hours away.”

“It was only a phrase that went from mouth to mouth and was never quite swallowed.”

“So it was that the Catherines poured water and spooned gruel, while the Clares prayed for the intercession of the saints. The Catherines changed sheets. The Clares practiced mortification of the flesh. The Catherines employed antibiotics. The Clares made a public display of a kneecap of their patron saint.
It was soon widely know to which hospital one went to get well, and to which one went to die.”

“Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.”

“Only a fool tries to reconstruct a bunch of grapes from a bottle of wine.”