A slap on the back.

Drinking has long been considered every legitimate writer's second career, and I'm afraid I'm no exception. Though, given that writing is really my second career, I suppose that makes drinking my third. Or something.

Its tertiary status notwithstanding, as I sit here, watching the minutes tick by and seeing Friday's cocktail hour approach over the horizon, the thought of my first drink of the weekend is creeping up on me. I'm thinking about a martini, or, more likely, a Manhattan - a real one, with two dashes of bitters. But should I have a twist, or a cherry?

But enough of me - to kick off your weekend something proper, here are a couple of my favorite drinking quotes, from writers illustrious all. And, if you're so inclined, won't you share your favorites?

"We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air."
- Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado

"Champagne is funny stuff. I'm used to whiskey. Whiskey is a slap on the back, and champagne's heavy mist before my eyes."
- Macaulay Connor (Jimmy Stewart), The Philadelphia Story

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."
- Oscar Wilde

"Come quickly - I am tasting the stars!"
- Dom Perignon*

"Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough."
- Mark Twain

"The food of thy soul is light and space; feed it then on light and space. But the food of thy body is champagne and oysters; feed it then on champagne and oysters; and so shall it merit a joyful resurrection, if there is any to be."
- Herman Melville, Pierre, or The Ambiguities

"No animal ever invented anything as bad as drunkenness - or as good as drink."
- G.K. Chesterton

*Definitively apocryphal, but lovely nonetheless.