Editing Hubert Selby Jr. (section)

===Becoming a writer===

For the next ten years, Selby was mostly bedridden; he was frequently hospitalized with a variety of lung-related ailments. The doctors offered a bleak prognosis, suggesting he was unlikely to survive long because he "just didn't have enough lung capacity". [[Gilbert Sorrentino]], a childhood friend who had become a writer, encouraged Selby to write fiction. Unable to have regular work because of his health, Selby decided, "I know the alphabet. Maybe I could be a writer."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Last Exit To Brooklyn (Bloomsbury Modern Classics)|last=Selby Jr|first=Hubert|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2000|isbn=0747549923|location=London, UK|pages=vi, introduction to edition by Hubert Selby Jr|quote="As I recall my reasoning at the time, all these years later, I wanted to be a composer but knew I could never go to school long enough to learn how, but I did know the alphabet so I figured I/d be a writer"}}</ref>

He later wrote:
<blockquote>I was sitting at home and had a profound experience. I experienced, in all of my Being, that someday I was going to die, and it wouldn't be like it had been happening, almost dying but somehow staying alive, but I would just die! And two things would happen right before I died: I would regret my entire life; I would want to live it over again. This terrified me. The thought that I would live my entire life, look at it and realize I blew it forced me to do something with my life.<ref>{{cite web|title=Hubert Selby Jr, deux ou trois choses |url=http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/021372-000/hubert-selby-jr-2-ou-3-choses |work=Arte.tv |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130811162738/http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/021372-000/hubert-selby-jr-2-ou-3-choses |archive-date=2013-08-11 }}</ref></blockquote>

With no formal training, Selby used a raw language to portray the bleak and violent world that was part of his youth. He said, "I write, in part, by ear. I hear, as well as feel and see, what I am writing. I have always been enamoured with the music of the speech in New York."<ref>{{cite news | title=Hubert Selby Jr and near-death experience | url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,421047,00.html | access-date=2005-12-23 | work=The Guardian | location=London | date=January 12, 2001}}</ref>

Little concerned with proper grammar, punctuation, or diction, Selby used unorthodox techniques in most of his works. He [[indentation (typesetting)|indented]] his paragraphs with alternating lengths, often by simply dropping down one line when finished with a paragraph. Like [[Jack Kerouac]] in his "spontaneous prose", Selby often completed his writing in a fast, [[Stream of consciousness writing|stream-of-consciousness]] style. He replaced apostrophes with forward slashes, which were closer on the typewriter, to avoid interrupting his flow of writing.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}