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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the importance of an artist's active involvement in their creative work.
Hunter S. Thompson emphasizes that a true writer embodies their subjects and experiences while creating, much like a film director who is intricately involved in all aspects of their production. This level of involvement fosters authenticity and depth in storytelling, ensuring that the narrative resonates with genuineness rather than detachment.
Themes
WritingArtAuthenticityStorytellingFilm
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to encourage active engagement in their stories.
More from Hunter S. Thompson
All quotes →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. ThompsonRead
Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach.
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There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.
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Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long.
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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. ThompsonRead
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