Bill Murray, playing Thompson, says the line in the 1980 Universal film Where the Buffalo Roam. The screenplay is credited to John Kaye, though Kaye has said Thompson and Murray changed parts of the script during filming. No source for the line in Thompson’s own published writing has been identified.
“It never got weird enough for me” Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson in the film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980; screenplay credited to John Kaye). No source in Thompson’s own published writing has been identified. Checked by Quotle.info
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In context
Evoking the world of John Kaye — American screenwriter & novelist. Theme: "It never got weird enough for me". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "It never got weird enough for me". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the line actually comes from
Work
Where the Buffalo Roam (feature film)
Released
25 April 1980 · Universal Pictures
Screenplay
John Kaye (credited)
Spoken by
Bill Murray, playing Hunter S. Thompson
It’s hard to say he got what he deserved, because he never really got anything, at least not in this story. And right now, this story is all we have … It’s sad. But what’s really sad is it never got weird enough for me. I moved to the country when the boat got too crowded.
Film dialogue, near the end
This transcription is from Wikiquote’s Where the Buffalo Roam page. The same monologue ends “Because it still hasn’t gotten weird enough for me.” The 1980 Harvard Crimson review quotes the line independently.
25 April 1980 — Where the Buffalo Roam opens, with Bill Murray as Thompson and a screenplay credited to John Kaye; Thompson’s credit is “executive consultant” (Wikipedia ↗).
14 May 1980 — The Harvard Crimson review ↗ quotes the film’s Thompson as he sighs, “It never got weird enough for me.”
The line is dialogue from Where the Buffalo Roam, a Universal film released in 1980 with a screenplay credited to John Kaye. Because the work was first published after 1931, it is under copyright in the United States, not in the public domain.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Why it gets pinned on Thompson
The line sounds like Thompson because the character speaking it is Thompson. Bill Murray plays him in a 1980 film. Quoting it without the film turned a scripted movie line into something Thompson supposedly said himself.
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The popular creditHunter S. Thompson, as author Movie character
The words are dialogue spoken by Bill Murray as Thompson in Where the Buffalo Roam (1980). The screenplay is credited to John Kaye, and Thompson was credited as “executive consultant” (Wikipedia ↗). Wikiquote’s page of Thompson’s sourced quotations ↗ does not include it.
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1980s yearbooks“Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” Film dropped
Quote sites todayHunter S. Thompson No source shown
Aggregators such as Quotewise ↗ and Quotepark ↗ list it under Thompson’s name and show no book, film or interview as its source.
✓The documented source is the 1980 Universal film Where the Buffalo Roam ↗, where Bill Murray speaks the line as Thompson. The screenplay is credited to John Kaye, and no source for the line in Thompson’s own published writing has been identified.
Context
A line Thompson's own critics picked out
Where the Buffalo Roam is a loose adaptation of Thompson’s early-1970s writing. It is built mainly on his piece about his lawyer friend Oscar Zeta Acosta, who appears in the film as “Carl Lazlo.” Thompson disliked the screenplay. According to Wikipedia ↗, he called it “a bad, dumb, low-level, low-rent script.”
The line still caught on. Reviewing the film for the Harvard Crimson ↗ in May 1980, Jacob V. Lamar wrote that the film’s only insight into Thompson’s character comes when, “reflecting upon his bizarre adventures, he sighs, ‘It never got weird enough for me.’”
It never got weird enough for me.
Could Thompson have written the line anyway?
Possibly, but no record shows it. Wikipedia reports Kaye’s claim that “Thompson and Murray changed parts of the script during filming,” and that the two “in early 1980 added voice-over narration.” So the film’s final words may not all be Kaye’s. Still, no source assigns this particular sentence to Thompson.
Thompson did write a famous ‘weird’ line: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro,” which Wikiquote’s Thompson page ↗ lists. “It never got weird enough for me” is not on that page.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
John Kaye is the credited screenwriter of Where the Buffalo Roam (1980). His other film credits include American Hot Wax and Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins, and he later wrote the novels Stars Screaming and The Dead Circus. Credit for this exact line is uncertain: Kaye has said Thompson and Murray changed parts of his script during filming, and the two later added voice-over narration, so no record shows whose hand drafted it.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source (film)
Where the Buffalo Roam. Directed by Art Linson. Screenplay by John Kaye. Universal Pictures, 1980. Line spoken by Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It never got weird enough for me’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-never-got-weird-enough-for-me/