Hubert Selby Jr. Quotes

I thought that we all were afraid of death, but I've talked to my wife and other people, and they're not afraid of death the way I am. I find that really confusing. I don't like the idea of nothingness - that's terrifying to me.

I had a period in my life when I was eight or nine when I was so scared of dying that I wouldn't go out of our house for a whole year.

The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.

I am afraid of death, scared by it. I already don't know whether I exist or not. So dying really terrifies me.

I believe that fear of life brings a greater fear of death.

If I am killed, I can die by once; but to live in constant dread of it, is to die over and over again.

Hence the tension, the anxiety, the anguish of humanity. The more you fight with death, the more anxiety-ridden you will become, you are bound to become. That's a natural consequence of it.

Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least.

The Fear of Death often proves Mortal.

They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing.

I don't think I've ever been particularly scared of death - but scared of dying, the process. It doesn't seem to be a good way of doing it.

The fear of death is for all of us everywhere, but for the great intelligence of the opium eater it is beautifully narrowed into the crux of drugs.

My liveliness is based on an incredible fear of death. In order to keep death at bay, I do a lot of "Yah! Yah! Yah!" And death says, "All right. He's too noisy and busy. I'll wait for someone who's sitting quietly, half asleep."

He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.

Despite the staunchest, most venerable defenses, we can never completely subdue death anxiety: it is always there, lurking in some hidden ravine of the mind.

Pain and Oblivion make mankind afraid to die; but all creatures are afraid of the one, none but mankind afraid of the other.

Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.

The fear of death is far greater than the death itself. But the fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all!

He went to bed early, but could not fall asleep. He was haunted by sad and gloomy reflections about the inevitable end- death. These thoughts were familiar to him, many times had he turned them over this way and that, first shuddering at the probability of annihilation, then welcoming it, almost rejoicing in it. Suddenly a peculiarly familiar agitation took possession of him... He mused awhile, sat down at the table, and wrote down the following lines in his sacred copy-book, without a single correction.

Fear of death is form of stasis horrors. The dead weight of time.

We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.

But everybody is afraid of death; that too is contagious. Your parents are afraid of death, your neighbors are afraid of death. Small children start getting infected by this constant fear all around. Everybody is afraid of death. People don't even want to talk about death.

Fear of death only comes through the brittleness of the ego.

The fear of approaching death, which in youth we imagine must cause inquietude to the aged, is very seldom the source of much uneasiness.