Alcohol is a disease, but it's the only disease you can get in trouble for having.

"It opens up your mind," she said, "and let's you see into other worlds, if you know how to control it."

That, of course, is the devil's bargain of addiction: a short-term good feeling in exchange for the steady meltdown of one's life.

After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.

If he didn't drink (absinthe), he would be somebody else. Personality must be accepted for what it is. You mustn't mind that a poet is a drunk, rather that drunks are not always poets.

Green changed to white, emerald to opal: nothing was changed.
The man let the water trickle gently into his glass, and as the green clouded, a mist fell from his mind.
Then he drank opaline.
Memories and terrors beset him. The past tore after him like a panther and through the blackness of the present he saw the luminous tiger eyes of the things to be.
But he drank opaline.
And that obscure night of the soul, and the valley of humiliation, through which he stumbled, were forgotten. He saw blue vistas of undiscovered countries, high prospects and a quiet, caressing sea. The past shed its perfume over him, today held his hand as if it were a little child, and tomorrow shone like a white star: nothing was changed.
He drank opaline.
The man had known the obscure night of the soul, and lay even now in the valley of humiliation; and the tiger menace of the things to be was red in the skies. But for a little while he had forgotten.
Green changed to white, emerald to opal: nothing was changed.

Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

My goodness. I do believe I'm drunk. I suddenly feel the need. . . to strut my funky stuff!

My supply of tablets has got to last for years and years. I like them more than I like me.

When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison." And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful."

Narcotics cannot still the tooth that nibbles at the soul.

Sometimes too much to drink is not enough.

We drink to conceal the fact that we're alcoholics.