“I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.”

— George Best

“The best advice on touring I ever got came from the publisher of my children’s mystery books . . . Very simple advice. She said, ‘Use the minibar.’”

— Peter Abrahams

“He was the kind of drunk whose wits accumulate as the spirit level rises.”

— Declan Hughes, The Price of Blood

“We had all the drinks. Dublin town ran out of drinks. And you said you had the last of the drinks back here.”

— Dave Donnelly in Declan Hughes’s The Price of Blood

“I don’t know about Tommy’s, but mine tasted like the first pint God made.”

— Declan Hughes, The Price of Blood

“Amateurs want the weekend to keep going on Sunday. Monday is pro’s night, real terminal cases.”

— Ed Loy in Declan Hughes’s The Price of Blood

“Everyone knows writers are all badly-dressed overweight cantankerous faux-humble alcoholics with a chip on each shoulder and a grudge against the world. And that’s just the women.”

— Jackie Tyrell in Declan Hughes’s The Price of Blood

The irascible Jack Shafer writes in praise of booze in the newsroom.

It’s easy to reduce all of what is wrong with American journalism to the near industrywide ban on booze in the newsroom. So I will.

Hear, hear!

“Martinis are like breasts, one isn’t enough, and three is too many.”

— Herb Caen

“There’s no vodka drink that can’t be made better by using gin instead.”

— Eric Felten