Quotes about Drinking

Don Birnam: It shrinks my liver, doesn't it, Nat? It pickles my kidneys, yeah. But what it does to the mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so the balloon can soar. Suddenly I'm above the ordinary. I'm competent. I'm walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I'm one of the great ones. I'm Michaelangelo, molding the beard of Moses. I'm Van Gogh painting pure sunlight. I'm Horowitz, playing the Emperor Concerto. I'm John Barrymore before movies got him by the throat. I'm Jesse James and his two brothers, all three of them. I'm W. Shakespeare. And out there it's not Third Avenue any longer, it's the Nile. Nat, it's the Nile and down it moves the barge of Cleopatra.

- Ray Milland (as Don Birnam) in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Nat: One's too many an' a hundred's not enough.

- Howard Da Silva (as Nat) in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Wick Birnem: If it happens, it happens and I hope it does. I've had six years of this. I've had my bellyfull... Who are we fooling? We've tried everything, haven't we? We've reasoned with him. We've baited him. We've watched him like a hawk. We've tried trusting him. How often have you cried? How often have I beaten him up? Scrape him out of a gutter and pump some kind of self-respect into him and back he falls, back in every time.
Helen St. James: He's a sick person. It's as though there was something wrong with his heart or his lungs. You wouldn't walk out on him if he had an attack. He needs our help.
Wick Birnem: He won't accept our help. Not Don, he hates us. He wants to be alone with that bottle of his. It's all he gives a hang about. Why kid ourselves? He's a hopeless alcoholic.

- Phillip Terry (as Wick Birnam) in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Don Birnam: Let me have one, Nat. I'm dying. Just one.

- Ray Milland (as Don Birnam) in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Don Birnam: I'm not a drinker;I'm a drunk.

- Ray Milland (as Don Birnam) in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Colonel Hugh Pickering: Higgins, at a time like this, it's positively indecent that you don't need a glass of port.

- Wilfrid Hyde-White (as Colonel Hugh Pickering) in My Fair Lady (1964)

Max: How many have I had?
Maid: Two.
Max: Make it an uneven three.

- Richard Haydn (as Max Detweiler) in The Sound of Music (1965)

Tom Jones: [Mr. Allworthy's recovery means Mr. Thwackum and others will not be receiving their expected inheritance. Apropos of this, Tom drunkenly taunts Mr. Thwackum with a song] - Sing, thick Thwackum, your bounty's flown.
Mr. Thwackum: [Indignant] You have good reason for your drunkenness, you beggarly bastard. He provided well enough for you.
Tom Jones: Do you think any such consideration could weigh with me? Damn you, Thwackum!
Mr. Thwackum: How dare you, sir!
Tom Jones: And damn me if I don't open another bottle.
[Tom laughs mockingly at Mr. Thwackum]
Tom Jones: I shall sing you a ballad which I have entitled "Sing, Thick Thwackum, Thy Bounty has Flown."
Tom Jones: [Drunkenly proceeds to taunt Mr. Thwackum with a mocking song] Sing, Thick Thwackum, thy bounty has flown. You lost all the money you thought that you'd own.
Mr. Blifil: [Angrily] Mr. Jones! This house is in mourning on account of the death of my dear mother.
Tom Jones: Forgive me! The joy of Mr. Allworthy's recovery...
Mr. Blifil: [Cutting him off] I had the misfortune to know who my parents were. Consequently, I'm grieved by their loss.
Tom Jones: You rascal! You dare to insult me?

- Albert Finney (as Tom Jones) in Tom Jones (1963)

Nick: Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?
George Bailey: [intervening] Nick, hold on. Just give him the same as mine. He's no trouble.
Nick: Okay.
[Nick walks away to tend to the bar]
George Bailey: [to Clarence] What's the matter with him? I never saw Nick act like that before.
Clarence: You'll see a lot of strange things from now on.

- Henry Travers (as Clarence) in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Jeff: She sure is the "eat, drink and be merry" girl.
Stella: Yeah, she'll wind up fat, alcoholic and miserable.

- Thelma Ritter (as Stella) in Rear Window (1954)