Premature success gives one an almost mystical conception of destiny as opposed to will power-at its worst the Napoleonic delusion.

There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.

You don’t know what a trial it is to be —like me. I've got to keep my face like steel in the street to keep men from winking at me.

Books are like brothers. I am an only child. Gatsby [is] my imaginary eldest brother.

Sometimes I wish I'd went through those good times stone cold sober so I could remember everything," he said, "but then again, if I had been sober the times probably wouldn't have been worth remembering.

She was incurably dishonest.

He was going to live in New York, and be known at every restaurant and café, wearing a dress suit from early evening to early morning, sleeping away the dull hours of the forenoon.