Quotes from book
The Joke's Over

The Joke's Over

Ralph Steadman

The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories—Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me is a book written and illustrated by Ralph Steadman chronicling the odd and very often dangerous times when he met and worked with his friend Hunter S. Thompson. It contains some illustrations by Steadman created at the time of the events and some photos taken by Steadman or Thompson.

“By this time trapped inside the drug's reverie I could have sprayed out Michelangelo's Last Judgement on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A yacht would be a beggar's handcart by comparison.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The America's Cup, p. 55
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Don't write, Ralph. You'll bring shame on your family. ' -- Hunter S. Thompson”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Epigraph, p. ixx
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Beware of privilege. It stinks of rotten rotten fish heads, many of which were lapping the shore beneath the jetties.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The America's Cup, p. 47
The Joke's Over (2006)

“I don't think that at the time, or now, come to think of it, I gave a damn. Foolishly, I wanted truth and idealism, but there was none to be had.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The America's Cup, p. 36
The Joke's Over (2006)

“One can derive the same fun from print-making as from making mud pies and great subtlety can be achieved through the use of transparent inks, half-tone screens and even accidental colour combinations, which is often where the art hides.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Own Goals, p. 314
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Those Fear and Loathing drawings were only possible for me because of the America's Cup six months earlier, which injected the the drawings with the eerie sense of being there to record the sensations. It was a regurgitation, a psycho-artistic vomit - a creative, cathartic cleansing of my inner being.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The America's Cup, p. 63
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Americans live with the certain knowledge that the source of their greatness has not yet been released.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The Last Trip To Woody Creek, p. 376
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Let me say it here and now. For all Hunter's mindless self-indulgence, which is legendary and crude, he always impressed me with his blind, selfless urge to cut out the crony bestiality of modern society and the political economy that scarred the era.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Fear And Loathing, p. 67
The Joke's Over (2006)

“America is ripe for lies and lethargy. The pure mountain air is going and gone. It is a huge burden and a sadness for us all.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The Last Trip To Woody Creek, p. 371
The Joke's Over (2006)

“What actually happened was that Rolling Stone paid me fifteen hundred dollars for the use of all the drawings - about twenty four of them - and then offered to buy the originals from me, which my agent urged 'was a good move!'. He sold the whole damn treasure trove to Jann Wenner for the princely sum of sixty dollars per drawing. I rue the day I let him convince me.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Fear And Loathing, p. 76
The Joke's Over (2006)

“We thought that we had suffered all our wars and now we could enjoy a time of peace and tranquillity. However, people never learn and a newer type of war was to envelope us. We seem doomed to repeat all our mistakes and find that we are being groomed, and doomed, by the legions of war, Odin's messengers, who would have us believe that aggression is the only way forward. Now we live in a war zone, the entire world.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Fear And Loathing On The Road To Hollywood, p. 157
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Where is Winnie the Pooh without it's illustrations?”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Fear And Loathing, p. 77
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Hunter Thompson wasn't Joseph Conrad, Jimmy Carter wasn't Harry Trueman. But strangely, Richard Nixon was Richard Nixon.
I'm no Pablo Picasso but there's no harm in straining. After all, the charm of any activity is in the trying and so rarely in the finished article.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The Filming Of Where The Buffalo Roam, p. 171
The Joke's Over (2006)

“It was a carefree period and we took to it like genuine lowlife.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The America's Cup, p. 65
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Funny thing about Americans. They are the first to adopt weird lifestyles and radical views but they are the most conservative race on earth.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Watergate Follies, p. 98
The Joke's Over (2006)

“I was in a slightly befuddled state by this time and the potent combination of watery beer and whiskey was bringing on a severe attack of drawing, as always happens when I start seeing unusual faces through a haze of controlled drinking. My body becomes a protective casing and lets me observe through the two keyholes on the front of my head.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The Kentucky Derby, p. 14
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Maybe he is the Mark Twain of the late twentieth century. Time will sort the bastard out and I leave it to others more qualified than me to assess and appraise his monumental literary legacy.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Introduction, p. 3
The Joke's Over (2006)

“Happiness is a Small Politician' - my mantra then and forever more.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

The America's Cup, p. 36
The Joke's Over (2006)

“I am an artist, I trade in uncertainty and superstition and cant. I invent dark visions of impossible situations that can never be resolved.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Fear And Loathing, p. 81
The Joke's Over (2006)

“At least my mural of Leonardo da Vinci still exists on the wall of their offices, which were subsequently taken over by Expedia. They had the wall insured.”

Ralph Steadman book The Joke's Over

Own Goals, p. 315
The Joke's Over (2006)

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