"What is one to say? Some writers drink too much. Are there more of them in proportion than soccer players or chess masters? If it is true, as observation suggests, that actors produce more than their fair share of drunks, then this would reinforce my theory of displaced stage fright as a cause of literary alcoholism. A writer's audience is and remains invisible to him, but if he is any good he is acutely and consciously aware of it, and never more so while it waits for him to come on, to begin p. 1. Alcohol not only makes you less self-critical, it also reduces fear, which partly explains its wartime use. Just the thing for the funk at the typewriter, except that when one has one little one, one wants one little one more. The bottle on the desk is all very well, right and proper, in fact, in what used to be Fleet Street, but not for anything anybody may hope will be read more than a couple of days later."
—Kingsley Amis, "Booze," Memoirs
Posted by mesh at October 31, 2006 04:20 PM | TrackBackI have scraps of yellow paper with evidence proving Mr. Amis' point. At various other times on my desk, there has been irrefutable evidence that Mr. Amis is correct. Unfortunately, those yellow scraps are all in various landfills throughout the world. They usually get thrown away the next morning.
Posted by: Phil Harvey at November 3, 2006 02:32 AM