Thompson speaking to Robert D. Ballou, editor of Viking:“Last week I read two fairly recent first novels – Acrobat Admits (Harold Grossman), and After Long Silence (Robert Gutwillig) – and saw enough mistakes to make me look long and hard...

Thompson wrote this to his mother, Virginia, about Wilson’s book:“As a parting note – I suggest that you get hold of a book called The Outsider by Colin Wilson. I had intended to go into a detailed explanation of what I have found out...

Thompson to Lionel Olay, a freelance journalist:“Now that you’ve taken personal journalism about as far as it can go, why don’t you read Singular Man and then get back to the real work?“I’m not dumping on you, old sport – just giving the...

Taken from a letter to Tom Wolfe, the author of the book:“I owe the National Observer in Washington a bit of money for stories paid and never written while I was working for them out here, and the way we decided I’d work it off was book...

Recommend to Angus Cameron, editor of Knopf:“If history professors in this country had any sense they would tout the book as a capsule cram course in the American Dream. I think it is the most American novel ever written. I remember coming...

Speaking to Angus Cameron, Knopf editor:“Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can’t reach. Facts are lies when they’re added up, and the only kind of journalism I can pay much attention to is something like Down And Out In...

Speaking to his childhood friend, Joe Bell:“To say what I thought of The Fountainhead would take me more pages than I like to think I’d stoop to boring someone with. I think it’s enough to say that I think it’s everything you said it was...

This little black book of Miller’s is something you might like. If not, or if you already have it, by all means send it back. I don’t mind giving it away, but I’d hate to see it wasted