Back then, all of us drank too much. The more in tune with

But I wanted my own stories, and I understood drinking to be the gasoline of all adventure. The best evenings were the ones you might regret.

When you’re drinking, the dividing line between you and real trouble always manages to fall just past where you stand.

It had a debonair glaze to it, not drinking in New York, that flew in the face of every tenet of A.A. about how to stop drinking. She had not come to the toxic level where she’d have to be straitjacketed to keep away the pink spiders. There was still time, it seemed, to slip bareback onto the golden palomino and ride into the sea, through a tangle

We went straight out drinking, and I picked up right where I left off. Always the object was to go out and “get wasted.” Though I sometimes had trouble holding my liquor, I was willing to try harder. I felt the key to successful drinking was the same as it is in musicianship—practice, practice, practice.