Inspirational Quotes by Hunter S. Thompson (American Journalist)

Hunter Stockton Thompson (1937–2005) was an American journalist. The inventor and chief exponent of “gonzo” journalism, he was a chronicler of American life since the 1950s and became a counterculture icon.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Thompson was an adherent of the ‘new journalism’ and eschewed objectivity. He was the first reporter to infiltrate the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. He rode with them for a year, which led to his being savagely beaten up and to Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (1966.)

Besides his irreverent political and cultural criticism, Thompson attracted attention for his larger-than-life persona, which was highlighted by drug- and alcohol-fueled adventures and distaste for authority. He styled his unique brand of journalism ‘Gonzo’ and produced a stream of outspoken, outrageous books, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972; film 1998,) Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 (1973,) The Great Shark Hunt (1979,) Generation of Swine (1988,) Songs of the Doomed (1990,) Better Than Sex (1994,) and Kingdom of Fear (2003.)

Much of Thompson’s work appeared initially been in magazines, particularly Esquire, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle, Examiner, National Observer, and other publications. His first novel, The Rum Diary (1959; film, 2011,) was not published until 1998.

Thompson committed suicide in 2005, having arranged for his cremated remains to be fired from a cannon at his home in Aspen, Colorado.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Hunter S. Thompson

One of the few ways I can almost be certain I’ll understand something is by sitting down and writing about it. Because by forcing yourself to write about it and putting it down in words, you can’t avoid having to come to grips with it. You might be wrong, but you have to think about it very intensely to write about it. So I use writing as a learning tool.
—Hunter S. Thompson
Topics: Authors & Writing

Revenge is one of the few things in politics that never gets lost in the mail or written off for a dime on the dollar like losers’ campaign debts or pledges to help the Poor.
—Hunter S. Thompson
Topics: Politics

Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.
—Hunter S. Thompson
Topics: Fun

If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.
—Hunter S. Thompson
Topics: Journalists, Journalism

As things stand now, I am going to be a writer. I’m not sure that I’m going to be a good one or even a self-supporting one, but until the dark thumb of fate presses me to the dust and says “you are nothing,” I will be a writer.
—Hunter S. Thompson
Topics: Authors & Writing

Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.
—Hunter S. Thompson
Topics: Fear

I have thought this way several times in my life but only when circumstances have led me to a bad pass. No man who has chosen well and wisely will ever credit it to fate; the only real fatalist is a man on his way down the pipe. There is no solace in fatalism.
—Hunter S. Thompson

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