First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.
Interpretation
The quote humorously highlights the progression of drinking alcohol from initial enjoyment to loss of control.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote illustrates the seductive nature of alcohol consumption, suggesting that it can start innocently and lead to a dangerous loss of autonomy. It captures the cycle of drinking where one initially takes pleasure in the act, only to find themselves ultimately controlled by the substance, personifying the drink as a dominant force over the individual.
In practice
In a humorous toast at a wedding.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.
Every comedian comes to a fork in the road where they have to decide if they're going to make jokes about other people or make jokes about themselves. I chose myself.
I recently bought a book of free verse. For twelve dollars.
Any comic is a very good actor. Look at Don Rickles. He is saying the same joke every night for 20 years and making it look like he just thought of it.
You have two choices, two paths to take as a comedian. You can tackle the difficult subjects and be harsh about it, be brash, be abrasive. But adding hatred to racism is not going to help everybody. So I like to have fun around it.
Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.
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