Hunter S. Thompson: Words from Wisecracker

Quotations commonly attributed to the gonzo journalist:

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

"Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."

"I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me."

And two excerpts from his writings:

"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. And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?' "

This may be the year when we finally come face-to-face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used-car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes ... understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose ... Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?

— David Turim, Seattle Times staff researcher