Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971)
Few writers are as quotable as Hunter S. Thompson, and few of his lines are as widely borrowed as this one. Five words that sum up his whole philosophy: if you choose an adventure, you accept everything that comes with it.
The line comes from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, first published in two parts in Rolling Stone in November 1971 under the pseudonym Raoul Duke, and as a book, with Ralph Steadman's ferocious illustrations, in 1972. Thompson and his attorney, the activist Oscar Zeta Acosta (fictionalised as "Dr. Gonzo"), went to Las Vegas on an assignment to write photo captions about the Mint 400 off-road race in the desert. The trip became something else entirely, followed by a second visit to cover a national conference of district attorneys on narcotics.
Why it suits Las Vegas
"Buy the ticket, take the ride" is really a gambler's creed. You do not get to choose the cards after you sit down; once the chips are on the table, you live with the result. Thompson's Las Vegas, with its casino floors that never close and its circus acts swinging above the gaming tables at Circus Circus, is the perfect setting for a man testing how far he can push his luck. The book is wild and funny, but it is also a sharp portrait of a city built on wagers and of an America that had lost its way after the 1960s.
About Hunter S. Thompson
Thompson (1937–2005) invented "Gonzo" journalism, a style in which the reporter becomes part of the story. Before Fear and Loathing he wrote Hell's Angels (1966), based on a year spent with the motorcycle club, and his campaign coverage in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is still read by political journalists. He was also an avid sports fan and bettor who wrote a long-running sports column for ESPN.com in his final years.
Read the full story of the city in fiction in Las Vegas in Fiction: from Fear and Loathing to Fools Die, and see more quotations on our Author Quotes page.
