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

I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical suffering

He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.

I'll drink your champagne. I'll drink every drop of it, I don't care if it kills me.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.