The Proud Highway — Barnaby Napier

From the offset I could tell this book was going to be packed full of nuggets of wisdom. Admittedly, HS Thompson is not one that most people would immediately go to for life advice. But no doubt he would be proud of that. A large part of his life philosophy involved finding your own way, and not simply following the beaten path because everybody else does. He demanded of his friends the confidence to go out on their own, living as they want and not as somebody else told them to. And beyond that, he generally believed that having big balls was the main prerequisite for doing the things you want to.

Another thing that struck me about Thompson was his self belief. He had Muhammed Ali levels of self confidence. So much so that I’ve split those quotes into their own section.

His output was simply incredible. He wrote more letters than I do emails. He dedicated the vast majority of his life to writing. The main reason he was so productive is because he only did the work he wanted to. He cared little for money, status or power. He just chose what he wanted to do and did it. He most likely never felt as though he was working. He clearly mentions many times that he would rather take low paying but interesting work to the opposite. A biproduct of being that was that Thompson spent most of his life without funds. He lived in modern poverty a lot of the time and was constantly making ends meet. No doubt enjoying it though.

Despite his self belief and creativity, he lived a crazy lifestyle. 20 coffees a day. Cocaine for breakfast. Sleeping on friends sofas. Squatting in lodges. The works. But this was just the other side of who he was. You don’t get a fearless and singular writer like him without the personality to match it.

Incidental Life Advice

p4: Has he any self-respect or pride in himself? How could he, when he has risked nothing and gained nothing?
p4: How does he feel when he realizes that he has barely tasted the meal of life; when he sees the prison he has made for himself in pursuit of the almighty dollar?
p4: A man is to be pitied who lacked the courage to accept the challenge of freedom and depart from the cushion of security and see life as it is in stead of living it second-hand.
p5: These are the insignificant and forgotten men who preach conformity because it is all they know.
p5: 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?
p40: I just keep wandering around, doing all these things and not worrying about what the results will be. So far it’s turned out pretty well.
p49: A man who lacks the ability to think for himself is as useless as a dead toad, while the thinking man has all the powers of the universe at his command.
p70: Keep in mind that the ability to create is an integral part of the makeup of man.
p71: I’ll stop trying to convince myself that I can’t fail: how dull the whole thing would be if that were true.
p83: Loneliness is for people who can’t see themselves except through the eyes of their compatriots, and all evidence points to the fact that I’ve passed that stage.
p83: Anyone who doesn’t need other people to feed his ego can find privacy anywhere.
p96: The pay is miserable, of course, but the work might be interesting.
p117: And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make—consciously or unconsciously—at one time in our lives.
p118: Existentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre.
p118: we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal.
p118: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES.
p118: but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy.
p119: You’ve lived a relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. - Explore vs exploit
p128: If only for an instant, the image of the man is imposed on the chaotic mainstream of life and it remains there forever: - Goal of man
p140: As the Siamese say, “Pea rattles loud in empty head.”
p143: There is plenty of money in the world but there are damn few jobs an intelligent man can do without compromising himself intolerably.
p153: I’ve learned the difference by now between a good and a bad risk.
p156: If you change yourself in order to be loved, then you are in love with love and not a person.
p168: Perhaps I’ll try to publish my collected letters before, instead of after, I make history.
p176: To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you somebody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. * that’s e. e. cummings,
p174: There is some that makes it, and some that don’t. I just happen to think I’m going to make it. I couldn’t afford to think otherwise.
p177: my time is too valuable to waste in an effort to supply the “man in the street” with his daily quota of clichés, gossip, and erotic tripe.
p212: Let’s face it: any man who really wants to work for Burdorf Furniture—or its equivalent—for the rest of his life is bound to be crazy—or a terribly narrow-minded coward.
p213: get old gracefully—not like a boob, but like a champion.
p216: Sealey never answered the two letters I wrote him, and I damn well won’t try again until he reciprocates.
p225: we are all alone, born alone, die alone
p225: I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.
p309: I would feel less than honest if I failed to warn you against the danger of taking yourself too seriously. It can do a man in.
p311: I would advise you, if you mean to deal with the big picture, to learn as much about the big facts as possible.
p311: One of the 3 big issues before this session of Congress is how to deal with the reality of an economic U.S. of Europe. Simple production figures and gross national products will tell you this. - educated on main issues
p324: First push 3.5 to its absolute limit, and if it still bugs you, you’ll find some way to buy that other camera. If not, you don’t need it anyway.
p351: Life has improved immeasurably since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.
p353: But I figure every extra week I’ve spent in these countries is a week I won’t have to spend the next time I go back.
p357: Drink with as many people as possible,
p365: the oddball stuff that is really the most important.
p407: What the fuck have you done except get rich?
p423: Needless to say, I do not seek a job, but rather a position or a connection. Nor do I particularly seek money, except in the form of having my expenses covered in what I undertake.
p436: Let’s face it—it’s the tension of life that keeps the light in a man’s eyes, and keeps the foam in his nuts. It’s really the only thing you can’t afford to lose.
p468: true anarchist is the only man who can afford to relax in this world;
p469: nobody—despite the advertisements—has whipped up the dish you know you want to taste.
p474: when you tell me to get off to Berkeley for the sit-ins I say no thanks I think I’ll go out to the beach and run in the fog and try to stay human in the smell of my own sweat. - Humanity
p515: In closing, all I can say is don’t let the bastards scare you. We are tougher than they want us to think.
p543: Most people wind up going against their instincts, and it makes them miserable for the rest of their lives.
p627: I’ve also learned at least one crucially important thing since then. And that’s the idea of making your own pattern, not falling into grooves that other people made.
p628: That includes teachers in school, sergeants in the Air Force, and cops on the highways. But people like that can screw you up pretty badly if you argue with them on their own turf,
p628: the secret of not getting caught in it is to have something of your own … some kind of skill or talent or action that other people have to respect. That way, you can ride when you want, and back off when you want.
p629: be an outlaw … but do it your own way, for your own reasons, and for christ’s sake don’t blow it as badly as the Angels have.

Self Belief

p229: If I weren’t so sure of my destiny, I might even say I was depressed.
p256: I have been a smashing success at everything except earning money. At times it makes me wonder … but then, as I look down at my great heap of short story and article carbons, I know the Big Money is just around the corner. Any day now, any day now, I shall be released.
p398: There’s nobody around who can do my kind of stuff, and—although a few others can do a few other things better—as a reader I’ll take mine any day.
p447: There is no question that I have honed my skills to the point of unbelievable sharpness.

Work

l162: Gonzo, he wrote, “is a style of ‘reporting based on William Faulkner’s idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism
p25: Instead of battling my environment, I enjoy my work tremendously and put in about 15 hours a day at it—for the simple reason that I like to write.
p121: words are such a poor medium when you really want someone to feel something.
p130: This is merely the first of a series of lectures on “subjects Thompson needs to get straight in his mind.”
p133: I find that by putting things in writing I can understand them and see them a little more objectively.
p133: 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.
p143: Thompson polished his writing skills by typing The Great Gatsby and A Farewell to Arms in their entirety, closely studying their sentence structures. - Focused hard worker
p279: Well, this has been a good excuse for not working on the novel for an hour or so. - Spent hours writing letters
p322: I have worked hard enough on it so I won’t care what anyone thinks. It is a decent chronicle of a meaningful time, and if somebody else can do it better, I am about ready to step aside anyway.
p339: I got 2 hours last night, after being ejected from the whorehouse at 5:00. - Sleep not most important
p349: it is hard to see anything when your eyes are bloodshot and your cheeks are hollow and your bowels are rotten and your head spins when you get up and your prick is falling off and you barely have the energy or even the inclination to get out of bed in the morning. That is exactly the way I feel.
p353: my name is X and I have an awful curiosity; I wonder if you’d mind giving me the inside dope.”
p371: As I said before, I count on you to warn me if my stuff ain’t up to par.
p404: But first there are other things to be learned: the origins and appeal of Marxism should be near the top of the list; - Thinking about the big questions
p406: book reviews—$75 a crack, with my own choice of books. One a week keeps - Book per week
p442: Your mail is increasingly incoherent. - Demands people have intelligent opinions
p449: Whether you are a journalist or not, the only way to attempt journalism is to assume you know nothing at the start, and then only write what you find evidence to support
p458: In the main, I like the offbeat stuff,
p471: reading five or six book reviews on the subject of Kennedy
p485: By midnight I had read an entire novel and two magazines,
p501: The worst thing about TV news is that it tends to be narrow-minded, stampeded to the obvious, the Big Story, while the meat of reality goes ignored.
p529: Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can’t reach.
p542: send a line and say what you think. I’d really like to know how my style strikes you on various pieces. - Opening a channel for relationship
p639: Like, “What made it happen?” and “What now?” And “Why?” - Questions he asks
p653: I’ve developed such a loathing for the typewriter that I rarely even enter this room. - Happens to the best of us
p654: Right now I should be writing my new “column” in Ramparts, but I can’t get up the zap for it. - Proof he never works, just does what he loves and gets paid for it

Poverty

p162: I simply have no money at all
p163: At the moment I have three dollars to my name, a can of tuna fish and a can of soup in the cabin, no oil for the furnace, one bag of dried food for the dog, and about enough gas in the Jaguar to make it back to that freezing hellhole for the night. - He was seriously broke
p218: the duffel bag and the box and the books and anything else - All he owns
p283: I have made $630 in the past six weeks. I am so used to poverty that I can waste most of it and not know the difference.
p328: Would very much appreciate a couch at your place for maybe two days or three, - Doesnt mind sleeping rough

Lifestyle

p12: Also, without the slightest exaggeration, I drink approximately 20 cups of coffee every 24 hours and manage to sleep about 5 hours a night.
p43: I shall slave like an animal until my present run of good fortune and luck runs on the rocks. It seems impossible that it could be a lasting thing.
p84: It should be interesting … if nothing else. - Classic HST phrase
p85: Where I’m going to get the money to go bouncing around the country like this is a real interesting problem: but I shall find it somewhere. I’ll have to.
p159: I think you should know my downs as well as my ups. The carefree Thompson facade gets very tiresome at times, and I need to have someone with whom I can be honestly confused and lost.
p211: I’m going to need that carnival to clear my system and present plans call for me to hit the docks with one toothbrush, no extra clothes and whatever money I can scrape together. I intend to sleep on the beach (impossible to get reservations even if I could afford them) and suck up every ounce of drink I can get my hands on. I’ll probably be arrested several times, flogged by the police, and will undoubtedly have to steal a boat to get back to San Juan. I would certainly not be able to keep a steady eye on you and I know damn well that’s what I’d have to do if you were with me. - Hunter life
p232: I can hardly be civil to women, and told a girl last night that if I came home with her the only act I would perform would be that of throwing her child off the cliff and into the sea.
p239: I’ll go as far as the rides take me, sleep on the beach (sleeping bag), and beg, if necessary, for food.
p256: I don’t mind giving it away, but I’d hate to see it wasted. - Henry miller the world of sex
p273: There is no glamour in the little man who comes down from the city to “get away from it all”
p274: These young men, usually in their late twenties or early thirties … are not concerned with undermining a vicious system, but with leading their own lives––on the fringe of society.
p274: None of them demanding anything more fantastic of life than the right to live after his own fashion.
p274: Never crusading for their ideas, but doing their utmost to put them into practice. - Live dont preach
p276: “the seven-five split”: seven months working at Nepenthe and five on unemployment insurance.
p279: With the Rogue money I bought a pistol and a Doberman and a lot of whiskey,
p280: I have found that most people harbor a real fear of having a little piece of lead blasted through their flesh & the drunker I get the more it amuses me.
p332: If I had my way I’d be in love all the time all over the world with a rifle in one hand and a typewriter in the other and a bellyful of good whiskey.
p338: Unless the June 10 Peru elections look to be bloody, I will stay in Bogotá two weeks - Follows local politics
p378: I had a nervous collapse today—violent shouting, destruction, tears, the whole works
p379: my nerves are so bad that any small thing is likely to kick me off on a rage.
p381: still the everlasting dysentery. - Honest with nearly everyone
p429: My position is and always has been that I distrust power and authority, together with all those who come to it by conventional means
p431: I am half mad from the silence I have imposed upon myself in Woody Creek, and when I find myself among human beings I tend to explode.
p446: But it took me six months, on horses, boats, jeeps and bush planes, to get from New York to Rio. And believe me, there is a difference.
p462: There is an amazing amount of resentment, among aging hacks, toward a young hotshot trying to bypass the bullshit jobs that none of them could avoid.
p465: I may even seek employment myself, but I doubt it. It would be like lopping off my balls. After five years on the fringe, I couldn’t handle anything steady.
p486: I fled to the dining car for breakfast, wondering if my nerves would hold up until we got to Chicago––33 more hours. - Feels stress like anyone else
p502: I explained that I wasn’t in the habit of settling my beefs with my fists, but with a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun.
p506: Besides that, I seem to be doing everything humanly possible to finish myself with booze and general physical abuse, pills, no sleep, etc.
p520: I’m beginning to feel the old action mania, the compulsion to get where things are happening.
p520: It scared me so badly that I am still afraid to drive. - Honest an open
p535: On my list to call when I woke up this morning were DeCanio, Ken Kesey, and Sonny Barger, president of the Oakland Hell’s Angels.
p541: As for LSD, I highly recommend it. We had a fine, wild weekend and no trouble at all. The feeling it produces is hard to describe. “Intensity” is a fair word for it.
p566: willfully ignorant of all protocol and that sort of thing.
p594: I have paid first $40 and then$ 50 for season tickets to the San Francisco 49er games during the past two years…
p642: The Volvo has become my womb: I have a bed, a freezer, food, drink and a fine reading light in the back lounge—with music.
p649: it, along with my penicillin and Vitamin B overloads, jolted me out of the month-long sloth I’ve been in. - Month long low periods
p654: Now I shoot clay pigeons off the porch. And I do a lot of wood-work — shelves, walls, etc. - Hobbies

Books Recommended

p144: The Organization Man (Whyte)
p164: Faulkner’s novels, particularly The Sound and the Fury.
p171: Lie Down in Darkness.
p261: It is a novel more gripping than The Ginger Man, more skillfully rendered than The Sergeant, more compassionate than [James Agee’s] A Death in the Family, and more important than Lie Down in Darkness. These, as you know, are the only good novels written in the past five years.
p406: read Singular Man
p426: Norman Mailer’s The White Negro
p512: Whether it’s gratuitous or not I have to insist you read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
p530: To my mind it’s the great american novel, - Great gatsby
p602: Later he wrote a profile on Lenny Bruce (for the Free Press) that if I ran a newspaper I’d reprint every year in boldface type, as an epitaph for free-lance writers everywhere. - Lionel Olay

Wide Vocabulary

meritorious, idiopathic, sardonic, ensconced, gall, trite, harangue, conceit, moonlighting, benevolent, abject, pithiness, credence, acerbic, pedagogue, riposte, devoid, lewd, unsullied, pious, spasmodic, gamut, lecherously, chancre, cordially, revulsion, indigent, elegy, nadir, harem, ebullient, revulsion, banalities, proletariat…, one fell swoop, cathartic, nigh, dole, disparaging, flagellants, indolent, dirge, epitaph, vitriolic, nadir, slovenly, to malign, to doff, libel, platitudes, At any rate, inane, throng, pederasts, deplore, lascivious, enervating, lecherous, picayune, dilettantes, trite, paean, remiss, sybaritic, screed, humdinger, pliable, facsimile, rhetoric, loon, calumny, benediction, roving, honcho, shoo-in, augur, petulant, naiveté, furtive, penchant, pocked, quandaries, gaunt, non sequitur, cogent, pique, pious, libel, purports.