Hell never finished high school, instead moving to New York City to make his way as a poet.

[14] Television was one of the early bands to play at CBGB because their manager, Terry Ork, persuaded owner Hilly Kristal to book them alongside the Ramones.

Hell left Television the same week that Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders quit the New York Dolls.

[5] The band released two albums, though the second, Destiny Street, retained only Quine from the original group, with Naux (Juan Maciel) on guitar and Fred Maher on drums.

Hell's best known songs with the Voidoids included "Blank Generation",[15] "Love Comes in Spurts",[5] "The Kid With the Replaceable Head" and "Time".

[16] Also in 2009, Hell gave his blessing to the public access program Pancake Mountain to create an animated music video for "The Kid with the Replaceable Head".

They formed only to record a 1991 EP and a 1992 album, both titled Dim Stars, and played one show in public, a WFMU benefit at The Ritz in Manhattan.

[13] Hell released a collection of short pieces (poems, essays and drawings) called Hot and Cold in 2001.

[13] His second novel, Godlike, was published in 2005 by Akashic Books as part of Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery Series.

More recent works include Psychopts (2008), a collaboration with artist Christopher Wool, as well as Disgusting (2010) and I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp (2013).

Hell's archive of his manuscripts, tapes, correspondence (written and email), journals and other documents of his life was purchased for $50,000 by New York University's Fales Library in 2003.

The mural, located in the city's North Limestone neighborhood, has three parts: two profiles of Hell, and a quote from his autobiography, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp.

[5] Other acting appearances include Ulli Lommel's Blank Generation, Nick Zedd's Geek Maggot Bingo, Rachel Amadeo's What About Me?

Hell had a non-speaking cameo role as Madonna's murdered boyfriend in Seidelman's 1985 Desperately Seeking Susan.