“Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done. ”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“Life was not longer something to endure, but to live. ”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“But to believe that getting stuff is the purpose and aim of life is madness. ”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from 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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“All the energy of their frustration and fear going into their laughter.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“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., quote from 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., quote from 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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“No matter how beautiful the outside may be, the inside still has feelings and needs that just words don't fulfill.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“she gradually became aware of how dumb the damn show was she was watching and she stared at it, wondering how in the hell they could put anything so absurdly infantile and intellectually and esthetically insulting on television, and she started asking herself over and over how they could do it, what kind of nonsense this is, and she continued to stare and shake her head, more and more of her mind being absorbed by the absurdity she was watching, suddenly leaning back on the couch as a section of the show ended and a commercial came blaringly on and she stared at them too, wondering what sort of cretins watch this garbage and are influenced by it and actually go out and buy those things, and she shook her head, unbelievable, it is simply unbelievable, how can they manage to make so many obnoxious commercials, one right after the other?”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“A guy needs something to give his life a reason or what's the point of living?”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“There was a problem and that was that. Why didnt make a fiddlers fuck.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“The summer sun continued to rise in the sky and propel shocks of heat down on the city and the heavy moisture moistened bodies and clothing, and people fanned and wiped at sweating faces trying to survive another bitch of a day as Harry and Marion peacefully passed the day sleeping in each others arms oblivious to the reality surrounding them.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“They laughed and put their arms around each other and kissed, first gently, then more passionately, and Harry pulled his face back a few inches and looked lovingly at Marion, I love you, and kissed her on the tip of her nose, her eyelids, her cheeks, then her soft lips, her chin, her neck, her ears, then nuzzled his face in her hair and caressed her back with his hands and breathed her name in her ear, Marion, Marion, I love you, and she gently moved with the flow and felt his words and kisses and feelings flow through her, easing away all her problems, her doubts, her fears, her anxieties and she felt warm and alive and vital. She felt loved. She felt necessary. Harry felt real and substantial. He could feel all the loose pieces starting to fall into place. He felt on the verge of something momentous. They felt whole. They felt united. Though they were still on the couch they felt a part of the vastness of the sky and the stars and moon. They were somehow on the crest of a hill with a gentle breeze blowing Marions hair flowingly; and walking through a sunlit woods and flower studded field feeling the freedom of the birds as they flew through the air chirping and singing and the night was comfortingly 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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“I guess we're kindred souls and that's why we can feel so close to each other.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“That's why you can't be worried about the world. They'll just do you in anyway. You can't depend on them because sooner or later they'll turn on you or just disappear and leave you there alone.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“Like if youre beautiful you dont feel pain or have dreams or know the despair of loneliness. Why should you be unhappy, youre so beautiful? My God they drive me nuts, like all I am is a beautiful body and nothing else. Not once, never, have they ever tried to love the real me, to love me for what I am, to love me for my mind.”
― Hubert Selby Jr., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
“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., quote from Requiem for a Dream
Hubert Selby Jr.
Born place: in Brooklyn, New York, The United States
Born date July 23, 1928
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“The first consequence of love is pain—whether it is the fascinating jovial pain of love or the excruciating pain of a torn and tormented heart; it is pain, nonetheless.”
― Nely Cab, quote from Creatura
“The gnarled pine, I would have said, touch it. This is China. Horticulturalists around the world have come to study it. Yet no one has ever been able to explain why it grows like a corkscrew, just as no one can adequately explain China. But like that tree, there it is, old, resilient, and oddly magnificent. Within that tree are the elements in nature that have inspired Chinese artists for centuries: gesture over geometry, subtlety over symmetry, constant flow over static form.
And the temples, walk and touch them. This is China. Don't merely stare at these murals and statues. Fly up to the crossbeams, get down on your hands and knees, and press your head to the floor tiles. Hide behind that pillar and come eye to eye with its flecks of paint. Imagine that you are the interior decorator who is a thousand years in age. Start with a bit of Tibetan Buddhism, plus a dash each of animism and Taoism. A hodgepodge, you say? No, what is in those temples is an amalgam that is pure Chinese, a lovely shabby elegance, a glorious new motley that makes China infinitely intriguing. Nothing is ever completely thrown away and replaced. If one period of influence falls out of favor, it is patched over. The old views still exist, one chipped layer beneath, ready to pop through with the slightest abrasion.
That is the Chinese aesthetic and also its spirit. Those are the traces that have affected all who have traveled along China's roads.”
― Amy Tan, quote from Saving Fish from Drowning
“The researchers concluded that during intercourse in the missionary position, the penis “has the shape of a boomerang.”
― Mary Roach, quote from Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
“Those who can’t do, teach, and those who can’t teach, critique.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Brimstone
“In a sick country every step to health is an insult to those who live on its sickness.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
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