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Hunter S. Thompson Quotes about Writing

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There is no story unless you've written it.

There is no story unless you've written it.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Stories, Written
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom”, p.273, Pan Macmillan

Writing is the flip side of sex - it's good only when it's over.

Hunter S. Thompson
Sex, Writing, Flip
FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Aug 18, 2014

The most important thing a writer can have [is] the ability to live with the constant loneliness and a strong sense of revulsion for the banalities of everyday socializing.

Hunter S. Thompson
Strong, Loneliness, Writing
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967”, p.128, Ballantine Books

I’m a word freak. I like words. I’ve always compared writing to music. That’s the way I feel about good paragraphs. When it really works, it’s like music.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Way, Freak
FaceBook post by Hunter S. Thompson from Jul 22, 2014

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

Hunter S. Thompson
Money, Writing, Epic
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967”, p.106, Ballantine Books

When you write for a living and you can't do anything else, you know that sooner or later that the deadline is going to come screaming down on you like a goddamn banshee. There's no avoiding it...So one day you just don't appear at the El Adobe bar anymore; you shut the door, paint the windows black, rent an electric typewriter and become the monster you always were - the writer.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Typewriters, Doors

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.

Hunter S. Thompson
Lying, Writing, Order
"The Proud Highway : The Fear and Loathing Letters" by Hunter S. Thompson, Volume I, (p. 133), 1997.

Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Thinking, Has Beens
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom”, p.205, Pan Macmillan

Because the writer must be a participant in the scene, while he's writing it — or at least taping it, or even sketching it. Or all three. Probably the closest analogy to the ideal would be a film director/producer who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least a main character.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Character, Cameras
"The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time".

I haven't found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as a sitting at a desk writing, trying to imagine a story no matter how bizarre it is, [or] going out and getting into the weirdness of reality and doing a little time on the Proud Highway.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Reality, Drug
Hunter S. Thompson, Beef Torrey, Kevin Simonson (2008). “Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson”, p.97, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like fucking - which is fun only for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling.

Hunter S. Thompson
Fun, Writing, Hateful
"The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time" by Hunter S. Thompson, (p. 109), 1979.

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
Writing, Fate, Dark
Hunter S. Thompson, Beef Torrey, Kevin Simonson (2008). “Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson”, p.10, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist, you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Artist, Reality
"Depp to star in ‘Rum Diary’". Associated Press Interview, www.today.com. November 12, 2003.

This is the way life goes in Big Sur. Waiting for the mail, watching the sea-lions in the surf or the freighters on the horizon, sitting in the tubs at Hot Springs, once in a while a bit of drink - and, most of the time, working at what ever it is that you came here to work on, whether it be painting, writing, gardening or the simple art of living your own life.

Hunter S. Thompson
Art, Spring, Writing
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967”, p.276, Ballantine Books

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 your say on the subject. You might be wrong, but you have to think about it very intensely to write about it.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Thinking, Sitting Down

["Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas"] is a very hard book to translate to film because there's so much interior monologue. The what if factor. I tried to write it cinematically and let the dialogue carry it but I forgot about the interior monologue. It's kind of hard to show what's going on in the head. I think we should do it like a documentary.

Hunter S. Thompson
Book, Writing, Thinking
Source: www.fargonebooks.com

Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Artist, Reality

There is probably some long-standing "rule" among writers, journalists, and other word-mongers that says: "When you start stealing from your own work you're in bad trouble." And it may be true.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Long, May
Hunter S. Thompson, Jann Wenner (2012). “Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson”, p.120, Simon and Schuster

Allen [ Ginsberg] was a particular friend, one of my heroes, really. I knew him almost as long as I've been writing.

Hunter S. Thompson
Hero, Writing, Long
Source: www.fargonebooks.com

Most of my stuff is just a series of false leads. I'll approach a story as a subject and then make a whole bunch of different runs at the lead. They're all good writing but they don't connect. So I end up having to string leads together.

Hunter S. Thompson
Running, Writing, Together
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom”, p.272, Pan Macmillan

I couldn't imagine, and I don't say this with any pride, but I really couldn't imagine writing without a desperate deadline.

Hunter S. Thompson
Writing, Pride, Imagine
Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Ancient Gonzo Wisdom”, p.272, Pan Macmillan

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