Gonzo Quotes

The truth is that The Wild One -- despite an admittedly fictional treatment -- was an inspired piece of film journalism. Instead of institutionalizing common knowledge, in the style of Time, it told a story that was only beginning to happen and which was inevitably influenced by the film. It gave the outlaws a lasting, romance-glazed image of themselves, a coherent reflection that only a very few had been able to find in a mirror, and it quickly became the bike rider's answer to The Sun Also Rises. The image is not valid, but its wide acceptance can hardly be blamed on the movie. The Wild One was careful to distinguish between "good outlaws" and "bad outlaws," but the people who were most influenced chose to identify with Brando instead of Lee Marvin whose role as the villain was a lot more true to life than Brando's portrayal of the confused hero. They saw themselves as modern Robin Hoods ... virile, inarticulate brutes whose good instincts got warped somewhere in the struggle for self-expression and who spent the rest of their violent lives seeking revenge on a world that done them wrong when they were young and defenseless. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

An outlaw can be defined as somebody who lives outside the law, beyond the law and not necessarily against it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Yesterday's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Because for Gonzo, anything which may explode at any moment is clearly a girl. ~ Nick Harkaway

We have bigger things to brood on and enormous reasons for wallowing in terminal craziness until we finally hit bottom. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Call on God, but row away from the rocks. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I have to say, I'm still surprised anyone's nice to me, that anyone talks to me. But I think people understand that other people go through things. We're all a bit gonzo, and you're allowed to take a little time to get your head on straight. ~ Natasha Lyonne

The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. ~ William Faulkner

Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

We were deluged together in the raw, unbalanced Stuff of the universe. Inevitable consequence:
My own little reification.
I was made flesh, and in the process taken from him. I was never supposed to be real. How terrifying to confide your every doubt to an imaginary companion, to bequeath to him every alternative, and then one day turn and see him standing before you. Gonzo must be feeling so hollow inside, with me spun out and separated from him. It must be quiet and empty in there.
And that, of course, is how I survived being shot. Freshly minted, new, I wasn't real enough to die. ~ Nick Harkaway

Most people who deal in words don't have much faith in them and I am no exception. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

The only way to write honestly about the scene is to be part of it. If there is one quick truism about psychedelic drugs, it is that anyone who tries to write about them without first-expierience is a fool and a fraud. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear - fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable asking for a kiss," I finally say. She snorts. "At least you asked." "Glad you like that because I might keep asking until I get one." She laughs as she shakes her head. "You promised Gonzo you'd only put the moves on me when he's around." "Let's go wake him up, then. ~ Tammy Falkner

Gonzo, the enlightened hippy-biker island god, was a hermit in every sense of the word; a hermit crab and this island was his shell. ~ Jonathan Dunne

When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Joe Klein is the flower of American political journalism, a sharp raconteur who shows traces of the gonzo style that was in vogue when he was honing his craft at Rolling Stone back in the day. ~ Thomas Frank

Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism
which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Gonzo stares after the Rolls-Royce. He has heroismus interruptus. He was ready, right then, to coordinate four or five hundred terrified civvies, lay down his life, kill for them, make a legend of disinterested soldiering. It's not that he resents what has happened, but he's having trouble changing gear. He was expecting to take charge. Instead he is struggling to keep up with a sexagenarian Mystery Man with an Errol Flynn grin who commands a legion of pirate-monk rally drivers and sweeps formidable older women from their feet in a could of cologne and Asian-Monarchic style. ~ Nick Harkaway

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn't entirely conquer - he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Gonzo leaps like a giraffe and grabs it. ~ Jerry Coleman

Earth is such a sweet 'n sour place, thought Gonzo, puffing on his seaweed roll-up, and he knew that if aliens did exist, then they'd probably only stop to avail of this planet's toilet facilities on the intergalactic highway. ~ Jonathan Dunne

I'm just saying it's not all sand castles and ninjas. ~ Libba Bray

I have always been fascinated by dark and mysterious stuff. I guess I have a pretty dark and gloomy side. Writing songs saves me from going completely gonzo. ~ Gavin Rossdale

Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Anyone that is able to put a high school film and gonzo journalism together, it's like, "Yes, please!" ~ Zoe Kravitz

Take it from me, there's nothing like a job well done. Except the quiet enveloping darkness at the bottom of a bottle of Jim Beam after a job done any way at all. ~ Stephen Colbert

If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I bought a small bottle of beer for fifteen cents and sat on a bench in the clearing, feeling like an old man. The scene I had just witnessed brought back a lot of memories - not of things I had done but of things I had failed to do, wasted hours and frustrated moments and opportunities forever lost because time had eaten so much of my life and I would never get it back. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Freedom, Truth, Honour - you could rattle off a hundred such words and behind every one of them would gather a thousand punks, pompous little farts, waving the banner with one hand and reaching under the table with the other. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Lucy paints portraits of Barbara Streisand. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Gonzo narrows his eyes. 'How often do you clean that thing?' 'Every night,' the waitress answers. Her smile is strained. 'That's it? Do you know how long it takes for Listeria to grow under those hot lamps, even with ice?' Here we go. 'It can happen in just five hours. Five hours and you've got the salad bar of death!' The waitress looks confused. 'From Listerine? ~ Libba Bray

The sergeants are shunted forward and they blink and stare up at Gonzo as he leans on the edge of his giant mixing bowl. MacArthur never addressed his troops from a mixing bowl
not even one made from a spare geodesic radio emplacement shell
and certainly de Gaulle never did. But Gonzo Lubitsch does, and he does it as if a whole long line of commanders were standing at his shoulder, urging him on.
"Gentlemen," says Gonzo softly, "holidays are over. I need an oven, and I need one in about twenty minutes, or these fine flapjacks will go to waste, and that is not happening."
And something about this statement and the voice in which he says it makes it clear that this is simply true. One way or another, this thing will get done. Under a layer of grime and horror, these two are soldiers, and more, they are productive, can-do sorts of people. Rustily but with a gratitude which is not so far short of worship, they say "Yes, sir" and are about their business. ~ Nick Harkaway

Gonzo's father told his son to grieve without reservation or embarrassment until he could grieve solemnly and inwardly, and then finally to hang up his tears and wear them only occasionally, as befits the true men of the heart. Grief is not a thing to be ashamed of or suppressed, he told Gonzo. Nor yet is it a thing to cherish. Feel it, inhabit it and leave it behind. It is right, but it is not the end. ~ Nick Harkaway

How long can we maintain? I wonder. How long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family. Will he make that grim connection.. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men's reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

I guess the biggest difference from the things I've done in the past is that my work will be more narrative-driven adult films or vignettes, not just "gonzo" scenes, which are straight sex, no storyline. ~ Sasha Grey

Las Vegas and the American Dream: two ideas intertwined like crossed fingers on a bloated corpse. ~ Jonathan Heatt

Of all the men that have run for president in the twentieth century, only George McGovern truly understood what a monument America could be to the human race. ~ Hunter S. Thompson