Nick Denton has always been a distinctly New York character. For 14 years, the Hungarian Brit reigned as the imperiously provocative founder and face of Gawker Media. In addition to Gawker, which he launched in 2002, Denton’s brands have included Jezebel, Valleywag, Gizmodo, and Deadspin. In Gawker’s New New Journalism, the tone was lacerating and subjects often confessional or intrusive; scoops ranged from a sneak peek at a not-yet-released iPhone (“This Is Apple’s Next iPhone”) to a link to an unpublished Quentin Tarantino screenplay (“Here Is the Leaked Quentin Tarantino ‘Hateful Eight’ Script”) to celebrity nudes.Nudes, in the end, led to Gawker’s downfall. In 2012, Gawker published a sex tape of the professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. In a subsequent trial, a jury awarded Hogan $140 million, $10 million of which Denton was personally responsible for. (Hogan settled with Gawker for $31 million.) This led to the $135 million sale of Gawker Media to Univision, as well as Denton’s personal bankruptcy (which he later exited after a settlement with Hogan). The benefactor of Hogan’s legal case was far-right tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who had held a decade-long grudge after Gawker outed him as gay in 2007.Which is why it was so surprising to see Denton describe Thiel as “right, as usual” in an X post last week. In an extensive interview, Denton expanded on his thoughts about Thiel (who, he says, “did me a huge favor, to be honest” in forcing the sale of Gawker Media), Bryan Goldberg’s Gawker reboot, his financial stake in Elon Musk, and the sale of his infamous SoHo loft (the promotion of which was his condition for being interviewed).Vanity Fair: You are the first person in Vanity Fair history to explicitly agree to an interview for the purpose of selling a home.Nick Denton: Really? Is that true?Yes, explicitly.Maybe I’m a little transparent about it, but this is the reason why I would talk. But I’m sure people have done it before plenty of times.I’m sure.What’s your