Writer Sherman Alexie on alcohol:
Question: Does alcohol primarily help or hurt writers?
Sherman Alexie: Well, I wrote "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"
and "The Business of Fancy Dancing" while drunk and drinking.
So there's certainly a lot to be said for my desperate years, my alcoholic years,
my active alcoholic years as being the source of some pretty good work,
for being the source of the two books that established and made my career.
But the thing is, it's unsustainable. You know, if you are using substances to fuel
your creativity, you're going to have a very, very short artistic life.
You're going to be a sprinter and by and large, I wanted to become a marathon runner.
And I can only run the marathon if I'm sober.
You kill your brain. You kill your brain.
You know, please try to find me, the successful drug user.
You know, try to find me, the high-functioning alcoholic, you know, career person,
and you could probably find in their work when they were drinking, when they weren't.
I bet you could look at the downfall of some amazing writers who wrote one or two great
books and then just fell apart, I'm pretty sure that's related to alcohol consumption.
So, it's unsustainable, you know, it's sort of like the environment, you can only pour so much
pollutants into it before the temperature changes dramatically.