quotes by Hubert Selby Jr.

"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)

"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)

"...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)

"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)

"Life was not longer something to endure, but to live. "
— 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)

"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)

"I need more than the streets. I don’t want to be a floating crap game all my life. I want to be something . . . anything."
— Hubert Selby Jr.

"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. (Last Exit to Brooklyn)

"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)

"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)

"Everything about it was wrong. Thats why it worked so good. "
— 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)

"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.

"...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)

"... I started to die 36 hours before I was born, so dying was a way of life for me."
— Hubert Selby Jr. (Last Exit to Brooklyn)

"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)

"...All the energy of their frustration and fear going into their laughter. "
— Hubert Selby Jr. (Requiem for a Dream)

"There was a problem and that was that. Why didnt make a fiddlers fuck."
— Hubert Selby Jr. (Requiem for a Dream)

"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)

"It wasnt only what she had done that was disturbing her, but the east with which she had done it. "
— Hubert Selby Jr. (Requiem for a Dream)