Lettre datée du 3 novembre 1956 adressée à Henry Stites (suite à l'annonce de l'invasion de la Hongrie par les chars soviétique, N.D.L.R.)
Correspondance, 1956
Hunter S. Thompson citations célèbres
Lettre datée du 22 septembre 1956 adressée à Gerald "Ching" Tyrell
Correspondance, 1956
Las Vegas parano (), 1972
Las Vegas parano (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream), 1972
Lettre datée du 30 mars 1959 adressée à William Faulkner
Correspondance, 1959
Lettre datée du 22 mars 1960 adressée à Angus Cameron
Correspondance, 1960
Texte écrit en 1955 par Hunter Thompson "Sécurité", paru dans The Spectator, bulletin annuel de la Athenaeum Literary Association de Louisville
Correspondance, 1955
Correspondance, 1961
Lettre datée du 30 août 1959 adressée à William J. Kennedy (Kennedy était alors rédacteur en chef du San Juan Star à Porto Rico, et dut d'abord répondre par refus à la demande d'embauche de Thompson, dans laquelle il faisait allusion à une conception du journalisme de Joseph Pulitzer dont un extrait est reproduit sur une plaque de bronze figurant sur la tour du Times à New York. Kennedy répondra par une proposition dans une lettre qu'il signera "Intestinalement vôtre, William J. Kennedy". La correspondance entre les deux hommes durera plus de quarante ans, N.D.L.R.)
Correspondance, 1959
Cotes sur le temps de Hunter S. Thompson
Lettre datée du 28 octobre 1960 adressée à Sandy Conklin
Correspondance, 1960
Las Vegas parano (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream), 1972
Lettre datée du 1er octobre 1958 adressée à Jack Scott du Vancouver Sun (il s'agit en effet d'une lettre de motivation écrite en état d'ébriété, N.D.L.R.)
Correspondance, 1958
Hunter S. Thompson: Citations en anglais
“Too weird to live, too rare to die!”
Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
"Security" (1951); excerpted in Outlaw Journalist: The Life & Times of Hunter S. Thompson (2008), page 15
1950s
“I was not proud of what I had learned but I never doubted that it was worth knowing.”
Source: The Rum Diary
“It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy”
"Kingdom of Fear" (12 September 2001)
2000s
Contexte: It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy … We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows?
“This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone”
"When War Drums Roll" (17 September 2001)
2000s
Contexte: This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it. Now.
Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
"Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl" (Rolling Stone #155, (28 February 1974); republished in Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1: The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (1979), p. 49
1970s
Source: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
“It never got weird enough for me.”
Variante: On my tombstone they will carve, "IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME.
Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Rolling Stone (1976)
1970s
Contexte: I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright... Or maybe "stupid" is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I... And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots.
Better than Sex (22 August 1994)
1990s
Contexte: Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is. They are addicts, and they are guilty and they do lie and cheat and steal — like all junkies. And when they get in a frenzy, they will sacrifice anything and anybody to feed their cruel and stupid habit, and there is no cure for it. That is addictive thinking. That is politics — especially in presidential campaigns. That is when the addicts seize the high ground. They care about nothing else. They are salmon, and they must spawn. They are addicts.
Letter to Larry Callen (14 July 1958), p. 133
1990s, The Proud Highway : The Fear and Loathing Letters Volume I (1997)
Contexte: I find that by putting things in writing I can understand them and see them a little more objectively. … For words are merely tools and if you use the right ones you can actually put even your life in order, if you don't lie to yourself and use the wrong words.
Variante: Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
“I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe.”
Source: Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
1960s, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1966)
Source: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
Contexte: The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others- the living- are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.
Contexte: But with the throttle screwed on, there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It has to be done right... and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get to your ears. The only sounds are the wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it... howling through a turn to the right, then to the left, and down the long hill to Pacifica... letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge... The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others- the living- are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definitions.
“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.”
2000s, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2004)
“Good people drink good beer.”
Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
“We can't stop here, this is bat country!”
Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas