Hubert Selby Jr. quotes - page 2

There are a lot of people in this country who really like my writing. And a lot of writers respect me. But the so-called establishment? They hate me. (Hubert Selby Jr.)
He replaced the gray of the walls with a darker shade by closing his eyes. It felt good to shut out some of the light. Not all, but just some. Just enough so there was a gray without images or threatening corners. Not the blackness that gives birth to those sudden flashes of stinging light that slashes your eyes, or the velvety darkness that thickens and become animated and flows and somehow moves around and over you. Just a soothing gray. Nothing to see. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
A little sleep and then a little wakefulness. Then a slipping to some soothing place in between. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
And the goddamn subway reeked like a sewer. All those goddamn animals jammed into the train like the ark... yeah, thats what they are, a bunch of stinking animals. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
There was a sense of security in old, familiar feelings in spite of their discomfort. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
He fought despairingly to go deeper into the blackness of a sleep, any sleep, even the sleep of death or some form of non-existence, but even with the loss of consciousness he dreamt he was awake, lying on the bed trying desperately to sleep. If he could find some way to prove that time had passed, no matter how short that time, he could tell himself that he had slept and perhaps then, just perhaps, he would feel rested. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
They had all they needed. They had the madness of pain. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
Its quite an experience to be locked up all by yourself in any size room, no less a little cell. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
He flowed deeper and deeper into himself, wrapped in the comforting strength of hate. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
A cigarette only takes a certain amount of time to smoke and though this takes time it seems to take less and less with each one and you can only smoke so many, there comes a time when you have to stop, when you just cant light the next one... at least not for a while. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
Yet the harder he fought to find this the more distant it became. The more he struggled against the pressures the more imprisoned he became. The more enmeshed he became in their conflicting directions. the further he was tugged in opposite directions that kept him immobile. And the harder he fought for movement, any movement, the more stationary became his position, the more painful his existence. (Hubert Selby Jr.)
They dont know the terrors that go through your mind as you lie there in the pit waiting for a hint of light to tell you that the night is over. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
A dark yet shallow sleep. A submission to exhaustion. A loss of consciousness and an avoidance of light, Yet not deep enough to avoid the turbulence on the surface while deep enough to feel the pressure from the bottom. Whatever or whoever he was sought to find the finite area where all pressures are equal and constant. To find that small pocket of weightlessness where no pressure is felt, where there is no tugging in opposite directions, no straining for a painless balance, where all of him was suspended and cushioned between the 2 crushing and yanking pressures where no pressures existed. Where no light existed. Where no time existed. Where no need or desire existed. Where there existed no blackness. There, where there existed nothing, not even a void. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
And their love life got better with time. Familiarity bred excitement. They loved discovering those little things, the touch, that made the other respond with a quiver or a sigh, and, in turn, having the discovery made. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
Theres always somebody bugging you. They just wont leave you alone. No matter how simple things are there always some sonofabitch complicating things and fucking with your life. Jesus, this fucking world stinks. People are nothing but a bunch of shits. A rotten bunch of shits. They always want to screw you. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
I guess I had fun. But not enough to stay. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
I sit, I read, I listen to music, I go or a walk, I ride to Prospect Park and sit under the Willow Tree, I remember, I forget, I look at pictures, I do, I do, I do... or I don't, but its peaceful... only me... no worries. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.
They held each other and kissed and pushed each others' darkness into the corner, believing in each others' light, each others' dream. View quote
Hubert Selby Jr.