Punch recipe (for Satu’s christening party) 1 l water + sugar + jam + brandy or spirit. Add 2 bottles of wine when everything is completely cold. Add a few drops of Bergamot oil in a lump of sugar, which must be melted in the water. (N.B. All mineral waters make the punch black.
(To Jussi Jalas, 9th April1943)

You have to have a personal relationship with a cigar. It gets annoyed with a bad smoker and it won’t burn. If you talk a lot while you smoke, the cigar punishes you and stops burning and you have to light it again. It must be treated with respect and elegance.
(To Jussi Jalas, 17th July 1943)

All the doctors who ordered me not to smoke or drink spirits are long since dead. But I go on living.
Quoted in Santeri Levas, 1960b)