Wealth & Money Quote by Jeffrey Bernard

Money, in Jeffrey Bernard's world, isn't virtue or ambition; it's insulation. The line lands with that Bernardian shrug: comfort "obviously" matters less when you're young, "but even so". That little reversal is the point. Youth is supposed to be the season of noble hardship, the romance of cold flats and cheap cigarettes. Bernard punctures the myth with a bodily truth: hunger, chill, and thirst don't become poetic just because you're 22.

The intent is bluntly practical, but the subtext is a whole lifestyle argument disguised as common sense. "Bloody eat well and be warm" isn't aspirational, it's defensive. He's not describing luxury; he's describing baseline dignity - the ability to treat your own body as something other than an afterthought. Then he adds the tell: "Have a drink when I want it". Comfort here isn't merely a good meal; it's autonomy, the small sovereignty of not having to negotiate with your bank balance every time desire shows up.

Context matters because Bernard made a career out of turning self-inflicted chaos into copy, chronicling a London bohemia where deprivation could be worn like credibility. This quote reads like a weary correction to that pose. It's not anti-poor, it's anti-romantic about being poor. And it carries a darker wink: for someone whose public persona revolved around drinking, "a drink when I want it" is both pleasure and permission - an everyday freedom that can slide, quietly, into necessity.