Hubert Selby Jr. > Quotes

“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“But you cant shut everyone out. I mean you have to have someone to love...someone to hold on to... someone--”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“I suspect there will never be a requiem for a dream, simply because it will destroy us before we have the opportunity to mourn it's passing.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“The voice so filled with nostalgia that you could almost see the memories floating through the blue smoke, memories not only of music and joy and youth, but perhaps, of dreams. They listened to the music, each hearing it in his own way, feeling relaxed and a part of the music, a part of each other, and almost a part of the world.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“There's a sorrow and pain in everyone's life, but every now and then there's a ray of light that melts the loneliness in your heart and brings comfort like hot soup and a soft bed.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“For weeks Tyrone thought he was going to die any minute, and there were also times when he was afraid he wasnt going to die.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“There was a sky somewhere above the tops of the buildings, with stars and a moon and all the things there are in a sky, but they were content to think of the distant street lights as planets and stars. If the lights prevented you from seeing the heavens, then preform a little magic and change reality to fit the need. The street lights were now planets and stars and moon.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“Life was not longer something to endure, but to live.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“Sometimes we have the absolute certainty there's something inside us that's so hideous and monstrous that if we ever search it out we won't be able to stand looking at it. But it's when we're willing to come face to face with that demon that we face the angel.”
― Hubert Selby Jr.

“...and the night was comfortably warm as the soft filtered light continued to push the darkness into the shadows as they held each other and kissed and pushed each others darkness into the corner, believing in each others light, each others dream.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“i think thats one of the problems with the world today, nobody knows who they are. everyone is running around looking for an identity, or trying to borrow one, only they dont know it. they actually think they know who they are and hat they are? theyre just a bunch of schleppers...who have no idea what a search for personal truth and identity really is, which would be alright if they didn't get in your way, but they insist that they know everything and that if you dont live their way then youre not living properly and they want to take your space away...they actually want to somehow get into your space and live in it and change it or destroy it...they just cant believe that you know what you are doing and that you are happy and content with it. you see thats the problem right there. if they could see that then they wouldnt have to feel threatened and feel that they have to destroy you before you destroy them. they just cant get it through their philistine heads that you are happy where you are and dont want to have anything to do with them. my space is mine and thats enough for me.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“He didnt know what was defeating him, but he sensed it was something he could not cope with, something that was far beyond his power to control or even at this point in time comprehend.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“But to believe that getting stuff is the purpose and aim of life is madness.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“Sometimes it seems to stand still. Like you’re in a bag and you can’t get out and somebody’s always telling you that it will get better with time and time just seems to stand still and laugh at you and your pain.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“They held each other and kissed and pushed each others' darkness into the corner, believing in each others' light, each others' dream.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“All the energy of their frustration and fear going into their laughter.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“I knew the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer.”
― Hubert Selby Jr.

“thats why you cant be worried about the world. theyll just do you in anyway. you can't depend on them because sooner or later theyll turn on you or just disapear and leave you there alone.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“They luxuriated in the feeling of deep and all pervading satisfaction, a feeling of knowing absolutely that all was well with the world and them and that the world was not only their oyster it was also their linguine with clam sauce. Not only were all things possible, but all things were theirs.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“I was sitting at home and had a profound experience. I experienced, in all of my Being, that someday I was going to die, and it wouldn't be like it had been happening, almost dying but somehow staying alive, but I would just die! And two things would happen right before I died: I would regret my entire life; I would want to live it over again. This terrified me. The thought that I would live my entire life, look at it and realize I blew it forced me to do something with my life.”
― Hubert Selby, Jr.

“I think the function of suffering is to let me know that my perception is skewed; what I’m doing is judging natural events in such a way that I am creating suffering within myself. For instance, you have pain over certain conditions, certain situations that occur. And if you just say ‘ok, here I am, I’m going to experience the pain,’ you don’t suffer. The resistance and the degree of the resistance to the natural phenomenon of life causes tremendous suffering.”
― Hubert Selby Jr.

“No matter how beautiful the outside may be, the inside still has feelings and needs that just words don't fulfill.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“Everything about it was wrong. Thats why it worked so good.”
― Hubert Selby Jr.

“... I started to die 36 hours before I was born, so dying was a way of life for me.”
― Hubert Selby Jr.

“However they may have felt when they left they were now committed, they had passed the point of no return.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“...and he just sat back and stared at the tube, almost interested in what was happening, trying to find the ability to believe in that lie so he could believe the one within.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“Why did you start to write?


I left at 15.. I started to write becase I was taken off a ship from Germany when I was 18. They said I wouldn't live for 6 months.

I'd been given up for dead many times and I just didn't want to waste my life. I had what I now realize was a spiritual experience.

I realized that I would die,
and that just before I would die,
two things would happen.

number one, I would regret my entire life.
and number two, I would want to live my life over again.
and then I would die.
and that terrified me.

[...]

to think that I would live my entire life, look at it, and say oh..I blew it. was such a terrifying thought
that I bought a typewriter

I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I bought a typewriter.
but that is what got me to start writing, was

I did not want to waste my life

I wanted to, and I HAD to, do something with my life”
― Hubert Selby Jr.

“The enemy ate away at their will so they could not resist, their bodies not only craving, but needing the very poison that ground them into that pitiable state of being; the mind diseased and crippled by the enemy it was obsessed with and the obsession and terrible physical need corrupting the soul until the actions were less than those of an animal, less than those of a wounded animal, less than those of anything and everything they did not want to be.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

“But I knew that someday I was going to die. And just before I died two things would happen; Number 1: I would regret my entire life. Number 2: I would want to live my life over again.”
― Hubert Selby, Jr.

“It seems to me that we all have a dream of our own, our own personal vision, our own individual way of giving, but for many reasons we are afraid to pursue it, or to even recognize and accept its existence. But to deny our vision is to sell our soul.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream