"The only deadly sin in the eyes of the membership of the Garrick Club was to be a bore. Anyone who told long stories, showed too much eagerness for familiarity with famous people, mistook simple rudeness for rudeness coupled with wit, boasted of his own success, failed gracefully to conceal malicious envy of other people, or quailed before the onslaughts of his fellow members was ripe for massacre...

"

[The playwright Freddy Lonsdale] was welcomed into the Garrick because of his natural understanding of the rules. On one occasion, he was accosted by a stranger who said to him, 'Aren't you Freddy Lonsdale?' Freddy surveyed him swiftly, and replied, 'No, not tonight.'"