15 Alcoholic Writers And Their Favorite Drinks

Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was a journalist before entering Military Intelligence. Its rumored that he drank gin until his doctor advised him to switch to bourbon as it might be better for his health.

“It’s just that I’d rather die of drink than of thirst.”

― Thunderball

The Irish writer and poet loved champagne so much that he demanded it while imprisoned.

“I have made an important discovery... that alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, produces all the effect of intoxication.”

To appear inconspicuous, the writer known for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter always drank her hot tea and sherry from a thermal.

“Next to music beer was best.”

― The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The author of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood struggled with drinking and drug abuse for most of his final days. Capote referred to orange juice and vodka his "orange drink."

"I’m an alcoholic. I’m a drug addict. I’m homosexual. I’m a genius.”

The Californian pulp-writer was known for a troubled personal life but she wrote excellent fiction in works such as her Collected Stories, The Mountain Lion and Boston Adventure.

"She wanted them to go together to some hopelessly disreputable bar and to console one another in the most maudlin fashion over a lengthy succession of powerful drinks of whiskey, to compare their illnesses, to marry their invalid souls for these few hours of painful communion, and to babble with rapture that they were at last, for a little while, they were no longer alone."

— The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford

Parker was known for her drinking and suicidal tendencies but she remains one of the most accomplished female writers of poetry, prose and screenplays.

“I wish I could drink like a lady

I can take one or two at the most

Three and I’m under the table

Four and I’m under the host."

The Nobel Prize winning author was one of the few writers to admit that drinking didn't fuel his creative process. Faulkner simply used alcohol as an "escape valve" from the pressures of his life.

“There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't.”

The beat poet had many poor, drunk, hitchhiking excursions in Mexico where he fueled his love for alcohol with margaritas. At 47 years young, Kerouac died from liver failure.

“What do you want out of life?" I asked, and I used to ask that all the time of girls.

I don't know," she said. "Just wait on tables and try to get along." She yawned. I put my hand over her mouth and told her not to yawn. I tried to tell her how excited I was about life and the things we could do together; saying that, and planning to leave Denver in two days. She turned away wearily. We lay on our backs, looking at the ceiling and wondering what God had wrought when He made life so sad.”

― On the Road

The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner and playwright was known for her feminist activism and her whimsical attitude towards writing and her drinking habits.

"I drank at every vine. The last was like the first. I came upon no wine. So wonderful as thirst."

— Feast

The legendary writer, editor and poet of the American Romantic Movement allegedly spiked his drinks with opiates. He tragically passed away at the age of 40. His cause of death is still unknown but has been attributed to alcohol, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, among many other theories.

“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

Bullfights, boxing, big-game hunting, fishing and numerous awards, Papa lived hard and drank hard. When his dear friend F. Scott Fitzgerald penned a memoir confessing his creative decline, Papa simply told him, “toss your balls into the sea — if you have any balls left.”

“Don’t bother with churches, government buildings or city squares. If you want to know about a culture, spend a night in its bars.”