2 Quotes & Sayings By Hubert Selby
Hubert Selby is an American writer who was born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1939. His father was a dental surgeon and his mother was a housewife. Selby dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and moved to New York City where he worked at various jobs including selling shoes and working as a porter at the Hotel Pierre. He attended Hunter College in 1959 where he studied literature
He dropped out again after one semester and spent his time working odd jobs, including food service work in a deli. He became homeless doing odd jobs before landing a job as a maintenance worker for the New York Museum of Modern Art. Selby began writing while he was homeless on the streets of New York City during the early 1960s, but did not have any success for several years, experiencing bouts of despair.
Selby was influenced by Jean Genet's The Thief's Journal which featured an autobiographical protagonist living on the streets, and later by William Burroughs' Naked Lunch which gave Selby permission to be autobiographical.