The Creative Wisdom of Hunter S. Thompson
The iconic Hunter S. Thompson in his natural state, with a drink in his hand. Image taken from his book, The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time.
In 1958, a young Hunter S. Thompson wrote a cover letter for a newspaper that was either the best or worst unsolicited job pitch ever. He “offered his services” to the Vancouver Sun editor Jack Scott by declaring:
“Since I haven’t seen a copy of the ‘new’ Sun yet, I’ll have to make this a tentative offer. I stepped into a dung-hole the last time I took a job with a paper I didn’t know anything about and I’m not quite ready to go charging up another blind alley. Unless it looks totally worthless, I’ll let my offer stand. And don’t think that my arrogance is unintentional: it’s just that I’d rather offend you now than after I started working for you.”
Gotta appreciate the candor. Thompson never heard back from the editor (but he ended up doing okay in his career).
His outrageous job inquiry letter perfectly captures the beauty of Thompson as a writer and philosopher — brilliant, wild, rebellious, and always willing to push it to the edge, often over.
On that note, we share 10 pieces of creative wisdom from Thompson on passion, purpose, and diving into the weirdness of reality.
“Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life.”
“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”
“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 control 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.”
“Insanity is a legal term. Crazy is an art form.”
“I haven't found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as 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.”
“Writing is the flip side of sex — it’s good only when it’s over.”
“The greatest mania of all is passion, and I am a natural slave to passion. The balance between my brain and my soul and my body is as wild and delicate as the skin of a Ming vase.”
“Never fire a warning shot. It is a waste of ammunition.”
“You won't find reasonable men on the tops of tall mountains.”
“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!’”
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