Phraselet No. 78

"Smoking was a real good friend of mine," Kathy told me, remembering. Even all these years later it remains easy for her to conjure the smoking life. "You need a cigarette. You're happy, you're sad, you're excited, you're calm. It doesn't matter. With everything you do, you need a cigarette. You sit down. You take a deep breath. You pull out the cigarette. You look at it and start thinking about what you're going to be thinking about when you're smoking." And the ritual begins. "You put it in your mouth. You light the match, put it to the cigarette. You take a drag. And now I'm set. I'm relaxed. I'm in the zone.

"Now, do that 60 times a day," she says.

- Steve McKee, "His Father's Heart," The Wall Street Journal (January 22, 2008)