Photograph by Ryan McGinley
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!”
– Hunter S. Thompson
Photograph by Leon Levinstein
“Happy," I muttered, trying to pin the word down.
But it is one of those words, like Love,
that I have never quite understood.
Most people who deal in words don’t have much faith in them
and I am no exception –
especially the big ones like Happy and Love and Honest and Strong.
They are too elusive and far to relative
when you compare them to sharp, mean little words
like Punk and Cheap and Phony.
I feel at home with these, because they’re scrawny and easy to pin,
but the big ones are tough and it takes
either a priest or a fool to use them with any confidence.
- Hunter S. Thompson
From The Rum Diary