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An exchange between Hunter S. Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke.

When John Kennedy had a bunch of White House dinners for poets and composers and writers, it was a vast assemblage of American establishment-like talent, and when he sat down for dinner at the White House he kindly observed that he thought that never before had so much talent been assembled for a dinner at the White House. Then he added, "Except for when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up.

Cheney was on TV last night repeating that thing that Saddam must be killed because he turned chemical weapons on his own people. They're classified as weapons of mass destruction. I remember a lot of gas being used against me. Shit, that CS gas and pepper gas would qualify as chemical weapons for sure. And this government used it during the '60's on many people, including me.

I was talking to Charlie Rose on the air last week or the week before, and when I compared Hitler to George Bush, goddamn, they cut it. That was impossible for even me to say in New York. So I'm just telling you in case you want to read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich again.

When addressing a former president, Mr. President is the proper form. But I also call one Jimmy. Of course, some of them are best addressed as Swine.

I've been beaten worse in New York City than I ever was by the Hell's Angels. I used to go out looking for punch-ups in New York. It was worth it just to see an oncoming mob of angry preppies. These weren't fights. There was nothing personal about it. I didn't hate the people. I was just a brawler. It was good American fun. There wasn't any right or wrong. Just fucking Saturday night whoopee.

Everything seems to lead back to 1980 to the real beginning of the downfall of America.

HST: I've been here 30 years and I've been a credit to the neighborhood. I'm a good neighbor. A good friend.

Time Out New York: Didn't you blow your neighbor's house off its foundation once?

HST: Oh...that's right. (Chuckling) Yeah. Well, it wasn't that bad. It cracked his swimming pool. A huge bomb in the Jeep went off. The tailpipe was blown about 250 yards into the road...big hunk of metal everwhere.

I've always believed: You teach a kid to like reading, they're set. That's what we did with Juan. You get a kid who likes to read on his own, shit, you've done your job.

"It's a writer's first duty to attack his country and assault everything it stands for." --Dylan Thomas

I think unless you stir something up somewhere, there's either something very suspicious about you or you're not doing your job. If everyone agreed with me or liked me I'd be very worried.

Read Beckett, Sartre, Camus, Genet, and Kafka and you'll say: "Life is absurd, the world is meaningless, and all of creation is insane."

Read Hunter S. Thompson and you'll say: "Life is absurd, the world is meaningless, and all of creation is insane--cool." --P.J. O'Rourke

Making your enemies laugh once is no big trick. But making them laugh twice, three times, against their better judgement, makes them notice.

"I just don't know of anything better in the world than the justified attack on authority figures that also uses humor. "--P.J. O'Rourke

At a book signing in Richmond, Virginia: "It's going to take me a few minutes to settle down. Or, I maybe never settle down. I may run completely amok, and begin to bleed from the mouth and the gums--puss all over myself and have to be taken off. But that's the risk you run when you go public."

I think having a favorite baseball team is like having a favorite oil company.

When I feel it's necessary to get back into politics, I'll do it, either writing about it or participating in it. But as long as it's not necessary, there are a lot better ways to spend your time. Buy an opium den in Singapore, or a brothel somewhere in Maine, I'd become a hired killer in Rhodesia or some kind of human Judas Goat in the Golden Triangle.

The problem with books of interviews is that the same questions are asked and answered repeatedly. However, since readers never know what Hunter S. Thompson is going to say next--because neither does Thompson--this book is still filled with some gems. For example, when asked what it was like covering the '72 campaign, Thompson said it was like falling down an elevator shaft into a pool of mermaids."