Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas [1971] - Hunter S. Thompson

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like 'I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive . . .' And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'"

"[Fear and Loathing in] Las Vegas is - I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's a hell of a book. Everything he did, in a way, is a hell of a book. He broke so many rules that I would get dizzy trying to evaluate him." - Norman Mailer, interview, Rolling Stone, May 3-17, 2007