Young people dream of becoming just like me. They said, “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.” I responded, “When you grow up, I want you to be you.” They grew up and found their place in the society.
To hell with dream job. Let us toast to animal pleasures.
To hell with unemployment: I think it’s a fine thing. I like sleeping all day and having nothing to do but read, write, and sleep whenever I feel tired. I like waking up in the morning and going immediately back to bed if the weather is foul. In short, I think it’s a fine situation for a man to be in: provided, of course, that he has enough money to eat and pay the rent. . .
Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives, and to the “good life,” whatever it is and wherever it happens to be.
Let us strip to the ankles and revel in everything sensual: let us laugh at the world as it looks at itself through mushroom-cloudy glasses, and I suppose we might as well pay the rent too: for eviction is second only to hunger as the dirtiest word in the dictionary.
Hunter S. Thompson
Letter to Sally Williams
17th January 1958
(From Proud Highway)
Photographs and Memories 