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Quote by Hunter S. Thompson

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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

A satirical and hallucinatory narrative that delves into the dark underbelly of Las Vegas, chronicling the drug-induced adventures of a journalist and his companion as they navigate the surreal landscape of the city and question the very essence of the American Dream. more

Author

Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson was an American journalist, writer, and editor, known for his unique writing style and coverage of the hippie culture. His work often featured first-person narration, filled with adventure and rebellious spirit. Thompson was praised for his deep insights into political and social issues and is considered a pioneer of 'New Journalism'. more

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“As the other two men moved toward the parking lot, Jay turned Ellie so that she had to face him. Now that she was safe and he was able to touch her, the anger burning inside him pushed toward the surface. “We talk here or at home. Your choice.” “Jay…” “No,” he said savagely. “I come home on a break to find a bullshit note from you, throwing away our relationship like it meant nothing, then I find out from Wyatt that you quit with no notice. You’re going to talk about whatever the fuck scared you enough to run. So you get a choice. Here. Or home.” Shifting from one foot to the other and still not looking at him, she finally whispered, “Home.”

“No story about Las Vegas should begin in Vegas. It is a place one goes, often rashly, and from which one returns often poorer in money and richer in experience. It is a crapshoot—pun intended—if the outcome will match the intention. Las Vegas will not disappoint, becoming a story one can tell in a bar, how one got an unfortunate tattoo, or drunkenly married a new acquaintance at the Little Vegas Chapel in front of an Elvis impersonator.”

“I watched men win and I watched them lose. They were playing a straight house. Nothing was loaded. The house took its own little percentage and got rich. Money made in bootlegging and gunrunning and dope smuggling and whoremongering was invested quite properly in an entire town that stood as a monument to human stupidity, a boomtown in the state with the sparsest population and the densest people in the country. Vegas.”

“Already on that highway Las Vegas felt like a dream, fleeing from my memory, growing fuzzier and more unreal with every passing mile of creosote basin rimmed by jagged hills. Will what we call civilization go like that too, a brutal, gleaming, plasticized absurdity that we will recall less with nostalgia than with befuddlement and wonder that a whole species could consent to live that way? There are other ways. It's not too late to find them. One way or another, we will have to.”