Quotes about drinking
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“If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Coffee, Understanding

“I think piracy is a bit like drinking. You want to stay out all night doing it, you pay the price the next day.”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Thinking, Night

“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Variant: First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.

New Year

“The most sensible thing to do to people you hate is to drink their brandy.”

Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) British-American actress

Source: A View of the Harbour

Hate, People

“God,” I moaned. “Do they use that stuff as rocket fuel?”
“No one made you keep drinking it.”
“Hey, don’t get preachy. Besides, I had to be polite.”
“Sure,” she said.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

God

“You're so very good at that. The temper, the scowl. You must drink shots of testosterone in your morning coffee.”

Rob Thurman (1950) American writer

Source: Deathwish

Coffee

“Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 347
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

Cute, Water, Sea, Wealth

“One more drink and you're dead. This is no way to talk to a suicide head.”

Charles Bukowski book Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Source: Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Way, Suicide, Dead

“She looked at me, like she was drinking in the fact that I was still here. And I realized I was doing the same thing. The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

World

“Come on, let's get you a drink. How's your love life, anyway?

Oh God. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, "How's your marriage going? Still have sex?”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Love, Life, God, Marriage

“Because I foresee many romantic picnics in our future. You, drinking a virgin pina colada. Me, drinking the blood of a virgin.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Simon to Clary, pg. 217
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

Future

“The six elements of her Fail Proof Broken-Heart Curing Treatment: "Vitamin E, get much sleep, drink much water, travel to a place far away from the person you loved, meditate and teach your heart that this is destiny.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Travel, Sleep, Water

“I make mistakes. That's what I do. I
speak without thinking, I act without
knowing. I drink so much that I can
barely walk… I'm a fantastic lover
though, and an amazing friend. God
knows I mean well.”

Candace Bushnell (1958) American author

God, Lovers, Thinking

“Men drive off bridges and drink too much because of women like you.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Women, Men

“I could drink a case of you, darlin'… and I would still be on my feet, yes I would still be on my feet…”

Joni Mitchell (1943) Canadian musician

“There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

Alcohol

“And you,
You can be mean
And I,
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers,
And that is a fact
Yes we're lovers,
And that is that”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Lovers, Time

“It's a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don't see or care.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

People, Time

“I no longer drink nearly as much as I used to but, still, my motto is Sine coffea nihil sum. Without coffee, I'm nothing.”

Sarah Vowell (1969) American author, journalist, essayist and social commentator

Coffee

“Fang: "Have you guys been playing in the toxic waste again? Been bitten by a radioactive spider? Struck by lightning? Drink a super-soldier serum?”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Final Warning

Guy

“That's what was wrong with drinking too much. You became immune to drunken delights. There was no solace in liquor. Before you got happy, you collapsed.”

Richard Matheson (1926–2013) American fiction writer

Source: I Am Legend and Other Stories

Happiness

“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Alcohol

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Fish, Time

“I'll drink your champagne. I'll drink every drop of it, I don't care if it kills me.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: Gatsby Girls

“There's no app for a bourbon buzz on a warm day in a cool, dark bar. The world will always want a drink.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

World

“Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink.”

Barbara Pym (1913–1980) British writer

“There wasn't enough gratitude in the world for a server who kept drinks coming at a time like this.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

World, Time, Gratitude

“Drink from me and live forever.
Lestat de Lioncourt”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

“I go to my Room and I drink and I smoke some cigarettes and I think about her. I drink and I smoke and I think about her and at a certain point blackness comes and my memory fails me.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Thinking, Memory

“He rose to his feet and padded down the last few steps silently, came up behind Kim, and leaned over her to say, “I vant to drink your blood” in a heavy, fake Dracula accent. She shrieked, flailed, and a zombie ate her brains on-screen."!”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Fade Out

“To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Peace, Coffee, Time, Housing

“Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whiskey and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind but falling in love and not getting arrested.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Love, Sleep

“Quick, how do you pick up a cat?"
"Buy her a drink.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Cats

“That's your response to everything: drink?"
"No, that's my response to nothing.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“Ah, it was a fine night, a warm night, a wine-drinking night, a moony night, and a night to hug your girl and talk and spit and be heavengoing.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Girl, Wine, Night

“Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde is a metaphor for alcoholism. He drinks a potion, becomes a monster. I know exactly how he feels.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

Alcohol, Feeling

“It was so quiet, a reservation kind of quiet, where you can hear somebody drinking whiskey on the rocks three miles away.”

Sherman Alexie book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Source: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

“You tried to drink the East River,"Magnus said, and Alec saw, as if for the first time, that Magnus's clothes were soaking wet too, sticking to his body like a dark second skin.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Time, Clothes

“I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one half his days and mad the other”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXII : Traits of Friendship; Arthur to Helen
Context: I see that a man cannot give himself up to drinking without being miserable one half his days and mad the other; besides, I like to enjoy my life at all sides and ends, which cannot be done by one that suffers himself to be the slave of a single propensity.

Madness

“The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered gleam of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Death, Spring

“And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory’s rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?”

Emily Brontë book Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

Source: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

Pain, World, Memory

“it does seem
the more we drink
the better the words
go.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“Those fruity drinks better have a lot of caffeine in them or I'll never make it through World Issues.”

Lisi Harrison (1970) Canadian writer

Source: Invasion of the Boy Snatchers

World

“Yeah, there's some unlikely beasts in the world, and it's best to stay near the ones that you've bought drinks for.”

Tim Powers On Stranger Tides

Source: On Stranger Tides

World

“When you quit drinking you stop waiting.”

Caroline Knapp (1959–2002) American writer

Source: Drinking: A Love Story

Waiting

“God seldom calls us for an easier life, but always calls us to know more of him and drink more deeply of His sustaining grace.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Don't Waste Your Life

Life, God

“Your mother and I do not approve of drinking. Have you not heard of the Eighteenth Amendment?”

“Prohibition? I drink to its health whenever I can.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Health

“What? You’d dare drink right after getting out of jail for intoxication?”
That’s when you need a drink the most.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum

“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Peaceful, Freedom

“The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood--
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Food, Thinking

“more you drink
more you want”

Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist

“That 'writers write' is meant to be self-evident. People like to say it. I find it is hardly ever true. Writers drink. Writers rant. Writers phone. Writers sleep. I have met very few writers who write at all.”

Renata Adler (1938) American author, journalist and film critic

Source: Speedboat

People, Sleep

“Beer's intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it.”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

Source: The October Country

Beer

“After doing extensive research, I can definitely tell you that single malt whiskies are good to drink.”

Iain Banks Raw Spirit

Source: Raw Spirit

“I'm not a writer with a drinking problem, I'm a drinker with a writing problem.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Problem

“Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

The Fly, st. 1–3
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Art, Singing, Dance, Summer

“live out where the real winds blow—to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested… Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

1980s, Generation of Swine (1988)
Context: Maybe there is no Heaven. Or maybe this is all pure gibberish — a product of the demented imagination of a lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate who has found a way to live out where the real winds blow — to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested...
Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.

Love, Sleep, Time

“Half full, half empty, what the hell difference does it make? If there's something in the damn glass, drink it.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Angels Fall

Hell

“It's a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can't eat for eight hours; he can't drink for eight hours; he can't make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Love, Making love

“I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That's the one thing I'm so indebted to her for.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
Variant: 'Twas a woman who drove me to drink. I never had the courtesy to thank her.

Love, Beauty

“I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.”

Irwin Shaw (1913–1984) American politician

Idea, Dead

“Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge book The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Source: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Water

“More like the movie where the guy meets a smart girl who wears a lot of sweaters and drinks cocoa. They talk about books and issues and kiss in the rain.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books, Guy, Girl, Kiss

“What else is there to do in college except drink beer or slit one's wrists?”

Bret Easton Ellis The Rules of Attraction

Source: The Rules of Attraction

Beer

“Smoke, drink and never think.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Thinking

“Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
I loved light ever, light in eye and brain —
No tapers mirrored in long palace floors,
Nor dedicated depths of silent aisles,
But just the common dusty wind-blown day
That roofs earth's millions.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

"Vesalius in Zante (1564)" http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/wharton/whartpoe2.htm#Vesalius%20in%20Zante.%20(1564), in North American Review (November 1902), p. 625 <br class="br">Source: Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses

“We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

"The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture", Life Magazine (December 1988)
Interviews
Context: For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stonewritten. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

Death, War, Beer