"I drink to make other people (more/seem) interesting” is a quotation cited in many drinking quote collections. The saying has been printed on T-shirts and improperly credited to the writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).

George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), an American drama critic known for his wit, wrote in the magazine The Smart Set in April 1923:

“In the words of a friend of mine, I drink to make other people interesting.”

Nathan never identified the friend, but it’s unlikely to have been Hemingway.


Wikipedia: George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and editor.
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Quotations
“I drink to make other people interesting.”

Google Books
April 1923, The Smart Set, “Repetition Generale” by George Jean Nathan and H. L. Mencken, pg. 35, col. 2:
Notes from an Unwritten Autobiography.
(...)
12. In the words of a friend of mine, I drink to make other people interesting.

Google Books
The Autobiography of an Attitude
By George Jean Nathan
New York, NY: A. A. Knopf
1926
Pg. 143:
ATTITUDE TOWARD ALCOHOL
§1 In the words of a friend of mine, I drink to make other people interesting.

Google Books
The World of George Jean Nathan
By George Jean Nathan
New York, NY: Knopf
1952
Pg. 216:
ON ALCOHOL
In the words of a friend of mine, I drink to make other people interesting.