Gambling can turn into a dangerous two-way street when you least expect it. Weird things happen suddenly, and your life can go all to pieces.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
I don't think that my kind of journalism has ever been universally popular. It's lonely out here.
Interpretation
Hunter S. Thompson reflects on the isolation felt in his unique approach to journalism.
In this quote, Hunter S. Thompson expresses the idea that his distinctive style of journalism, which often diverges from mainstream conventions, has not garnered widespread acclaim. He acknowledges this lack of universal appeal by stating that it can feel isolating to be on the fringes of a field that can sometimes be dominated by more traditional narratives. His sentiment highlights the challenges faced by those who choose to pursue originality and authenticity over popularity.
In practice
In a discussion about journalistic integrity at a media conference.
Gambling can turn into a dangerous two-way street when you least expect it. Weird things happen suddenly, and your life can go all to pieces.
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.
Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach.
There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.
Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.
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.
I don't believe newspaper reporters can substitute for a district attorney, but a newspaper has a very valid investigative role. Newspaper reports on corruption in government, racketeering and organized crime conditions can be very helpful to your communities and the whole country.
The most important ethical issues and the most difficult ones are the human ones because a reporter has enormous power to hurt people.
I'm sometimes embarrassed by how clinical I can become when I'm out reporting.
The great concern is that year after year, rising numbers of journalists are being killed in pursuit of their work. They are increasingly seen as not being neutral but rather as combatants by one side or the other.
As I occasionally survey the pack of sycophantic shih tzus in the Washington press corps, wriggling on their bellies to kiss the feet of those in power, I feel plumb discouraged about the future of journalism.
The Center for Public Integrity is the real thing. A group of dedicated people who remember that great journalism is about grit and guts and stamina and razor-sharp instincts. They are, thank heaven, here to stay.
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