Latest Hubert Selby, Jr. Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I just don't seem to be capable of believing in evil as some separate, distinct power within itself. I guess I'm just not a Southern Baptist or a Fundamentalist. I just don't seem to be capable of believing in it myself, somehow. I don't . . . I can't conceive from my experience how this force of evil can exist without the force of love being right there.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Believe, Love Is, Evil

• 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

• I certainly do attempt to live according to spiritual principles. That's always the foundation of each and every day. I have experienced some things in my life that just force me to believe in some sort of power. A creative . . . creative power source; however you want to phrase it. I certainly have experienced that presence. And I have experienced what I consider the basic, what we would call love and concern.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Spiritual, Believe, Creative

• Be careful of things like alcohol and drugs.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Alcohol, Drug, Be Careful

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• One of the things that fascinates me is the music of speech.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• 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

• 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

• I'm always presenting myself with problems to solve as a writer.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Problem, Presenting

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• We all need a meaning to our life.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• I have to have a meaning in my life. If I roam around without some meaning in my life, I'm in deep and serious trouble. I can't, I just can't exist.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Serious, Trouble

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• I'm focusing on writing the best story I can write. Which means I'm doing everything I can to give the artist within me as much power as possible.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Writing, Mean, Artist

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• I don't know how to make the critics happy!

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Critics

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• When I stop doing the things that make me unhappy, I will experience the happiness that is that natural state of being. See, I don't think we were created with some pain and misery and whatever. I think we were created by whatever this thing is, when it extended itself, and, here we are. But I pile on so many misconceptions that I end up uncomfortable in my own skin.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Pain, Thinking, Unhappy

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• If love is what I've experienced, I can't separate it from other people. I can't separate creation, and I can't separate whatever this creative thing is, from it's creation. I don't believe that can be done. We're all part of this creative force.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Believe, Love Is, People

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• I think Mozart, like you, is an example of someone who has the gods moving through him, and his religion was creation.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Moving, Thinking, Like You

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• I don't know that I could really define love. I can't . . . again, it's like trying to define what this creative force is. It's beyond my ability to really define. If I can define it, then it's not it. We're right back to that thing again.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Creative, Trying, Ability

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• I do believe this: That what we call love is always available to us. And of course I'm not just talking about passion. I'm talking about love where you just can't conceive that your life isn't perfect, that you can't conceive of wanting anything.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Believe, Passion, Love Is

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• As Lao Tzu says, "The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao".

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Tao

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

• People in Germany are very, very responsive to the readings.

  Hubert Selby, Jr.

  Reading, People

  Source: www.raintaxi.com