Hubert Selby, Jr. Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Pain, Thinking, Here I Am

  53 Copy quote

• Being an artist doesn’t take much, just everything you got. Which means, of course, that as the process is giving you life, it is also bringing you closer to death. But it’s no big deal. They are one in the same and cannot be avoided or denied. So when I totally embrace this process, this life/death, and abandon myself to it, I transcend all this meaningless gibberish and hang out with the gods. It seems to me that that is worth the price of admission.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Mean, Artist, Giving

  32 Copy quote

• Obviously, I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but self-destructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is giving, not getting.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Dream, Integrity, Believe

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Feb 22, 2012

  35 Copy quote

• 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.

  Angel, Able, Faces

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Jan 27, 2017

  28 Copy quote

• Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Responsibility, Done, Our Actions

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Oct 18, 2016

  59 Copy quote

• 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.

  Pain, Loneliness, Heart

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Jan 23, 2013

  34 Copy quote

• 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.

  Regret, Home, Two

  21 Copy quote

• But to believe that getting stuff is the purpose and aim of life is madness.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Believe, Purpose, Aim Of Life

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Sep 30, 2015

  38 Copy quote

• Angels is a tough word, because it is so involved with organized religion and everything else. I do know, absolutely, from my experience, there are some kind of spiritual entities - force, power, intelligence - that guide me through each and every day, as long as I'm willing to accept, recognize, and surrender to their guidance. It's always there, but there are times when I insist upon having my way.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Spiritual, Angel, Long

  8 Copy quote

• I guess it could be said that the inspiration for 'Requiem for a Dream' is watching the American dream not only destroy so many lives in the U.S., but infect the rest of the world with its obsession with getting more, ignoring the deadly effect that has on the planet.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Dream, Inspiration, World

  7 Copy quote

• It seems to me that what the artist sees is the simple and obvious that is invisible to everybody else.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Artist, Simple, Invisible

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Pain, Laughing, Get Better

  12 Copy quote

• All the energy of their frustration and fear going into their laughter.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Laughter, Frustration, Laughing

  4 Copy quote

• No matter how beautiful the outside may be, the inside still has feelings and needs that just words don't fulfill.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Beautiful, Feelings, Needs

  14 Copy quote

• The responsibility of the artist is to transcend the human ego.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Responsibility, Artist, Ego

  "Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow". Documentary, www.imdb.com. 2005.

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Stars, Moon, Reality

  9 Copy quote

• But you cant shut everyone out. I mean you have to have someone to love. . .someone to hold on to. . . someone--

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Mean, Love Someone, Cant

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• 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.

  Dream, Opportunity, Passing

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Apr 13, 2015

  7 Copy quote

• Life was not longer something to endure, but to live.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Endure

  12 Copy quote

• Writing, like any art, is a continuing process of discovering the infinite possibilities of Life.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Art, Writing, Infinite

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  Regret, Two, Numbers

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Depression, Week, Minutes

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  World, Worried, Turns

  FaceBook post by Hubert Selby, Jr. from Dec 28, 2016

  9 Copy quote

• ...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.

  Lying, Believe, Trying

  4 Copy quote

• I think in a way the great irony or paradox about America is that it makes it so hard for the sensitive person, the artist, the impressionable person, the person whose raison d'etre is to incarnate the creative will, rather than to just make money, and yet that extreme difficulty that the culture poses for us has created some of the best artists in the last hundred years.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Artist, Thinking, Creative

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

  5 Copy quote

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