Quotessence
Home / Authors / Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson Quotes

Journalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllGonzoFear And LoathingLoathingPeopleIfsWayMenGonzo JournalismThinkingLas VegasHuntersVegasKnowsWorldLongWritingDrugKindYearsEpic

Famous Hunter S. Thompson Quotes

“Sympathy? Not for me. No mercy for a criminal freak in Las Vegas. This place is like the Army: the shark ethic prevails - eat the wounded. In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

HumorVegasLas VegasSinisterHunter60sHunter S Thompson70s
Book:Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Create image

“There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel. Total loss of all basic motor skills, blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue - the mind recoils in horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column. Which is interesting, because you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can’t control it.”

MenWorldWayMindLossInterestingVisionWatchesNovelBalanceTerribleHorrorSkillsDepthCommunicateTongueBehaveVillageHelplessMotorVegasLas VegasColumnsIrresponsibleNumbLoathingDrunkardsDepravedBingeFear And LoathingRecoil
Author:Hunter S. Thompson
Create image

“["Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas"] is a very hard book to translate to film because there's so much interior monologue. The what if factor. I tried to write it cinematically and let the dialogue carry it but I forgot about the interior monologue. It's kind of hard to show what's going on in the head. I think we should do it like a documentary.”

IfsThinkingShouldWritingKindBookHardShowsFilmDialogueFactorsWhat IfTranslateDocumentariesInteriorsVegasLas VegasLoathingMonologues
Author:Hunter S. Thompson
Create image

“Hallucinations are bad enough. But after awhile you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. Most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing. But nobody can handle that other trip-the possibility that any freak with $1.98 can walk into the Circus-Circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas twelve times the size of God, howling anything that comes into his head. No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs.”

EnoughWalksSeeingSkyPossibilityDrugTownsSizeLegsHandleTeethGrandmotherKnivesFreakTwelveCircusAcidVegasLas VegasPsychedelicDowntownCrawlingHallucinationsFear And LoathingPsychedelic Drugs
Book:Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Create image

“Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.”

WorldLongRunningMemoriesKnowingAliveCornersExplanationLong RunsVegasLas VegasLoathingGonzoFear And Loathing
Book:The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
Create image

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”

TwoWholeHalfCasesFiveSeriousNeededDrugTendenciesGrassCollectionsBagsDozenSaltLockedSheetsSeventiesGalaxyAcidVegasLas VegasCocaineLoathingPintsGonzoHalf FullFear And LoathingRumTequilaShakersDownersBudweiser
Book:The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
Create image

“How long can we maintain? I wonder. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection.”

ThinkingLongHomeLastsKnownWonderBoysDrugLonelyConnectionsDesertVegasLas VegasGrimLoathingGonzoMansonFear And LoathingGonzo Journalism
Book:Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Create image

“The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station.”

MenWorldNextStuffDepthWorriedGasStationsHelplessRottenVegasLas VegasIrresponsibleLoathingDepravedBingeGonzoGas StationsFear And Loathing
Book:The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
Create image

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.”

FeelsShouldRememberBitsHoursSkyCarHugeTerribleDrugHundredEdgesMilesDesertBatsVegasLas VegasLoathingDivingGonzoTop DownFear And Loathing
Author:Hunter S. Thompson
Create image

“But after a while you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. Most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing.”

SeeingLegsHandleTeethGrandmotherKnivesAcidVegasLas VegasLoathingCrawlingHallucinationsFear And Loathing
Book:Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Create image

“History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody understands at the time--and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.”

ThinkingKnowsLongHardReasonWholeSeemsEnergyGenerationsHappenedFineReasonableNow And ThenFlashBullshitVegasLas VegasLoathingRetrospectGonzoFear And Loathing
Book:Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream
Create image

“And that, I think, was the handle--that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting--on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark--the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

ThinkingNeedsYearsLooksKindMeanEyeBeautifulFightingEvilEnergyForceSidesWaterFiveMilitaryVictoryMarkWestWaveHandleHillsBrokeInevitableFive YearsRidingNo PointMomentumVegasLas VegasLoathingSteepGonzoFear And LoathingFighting On
Author:Hunter S. Thompson
Create image

“In some circles, the Mint 400 is a far, far better thing than the Superbowl, the Kentucky Derby, and the lower Oakland roller derby finals all rolled into one. This race attracts a very special breed.”

RaceSpecialFinalsCirclesVegasLas VegasLoathingKentuckyMintFear And LoathingOaklandDerbyKentucky Derby
Book:Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Create image