"I'd sooner eat a sponge".
I'd sooner eat squirrel brain than appetizers like cheese curds deep-fried in beer-dipped batter.
"I'd sooner leave the country than put my life on hold all over again," he said.
I'd sooner not be on TV saying this, but here I am because it happened to me.
I don't smoke, I drink only occasionally, and I'd sooner saw my own feet off than touch anything harder than a double espresso.
A line like "I'd sooner drown in bed forever with the women from my twenties, painting a sky of orgasms, acting insoluble" abuts long quotations from Trotsky.
(However, Hastings said, he would not dream of joining the Garrick "because of its incredible complacency and that horrible tie, all those boring old judges. I'd sooner have my toenails extracted with red hot pincers").
Robinson Jeffers, for example, wrote lines like "I'd sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk" and praised "the massive / Mysticism of stone" and the "implacable arrogance" of birds of prey, while enjoying watching orcas maul sea lions because "there was nothing human involved... no lies, no smirk and no malice".
As we walk towards the centre court, I get talking to a chap about what a splendid sporting summer it's been so far: our footballers going to Germany and winning 6-3 (although I'd sooner they'd lost than give the Nazi salute, as they did); young Denis Compton getting a century against the Australians at Trent Bridge; and our golfers beating the United States at the Walker Cup match.
He lies around on his bed in the long Mediterranean afternoons hoping Oliver will walk in, feeling "fire like fear, like panic, like one more minute of this and I'll die if he doesn't knock at my door, but I'd sooner he never knock than knock now.
