Quotes from GG
I
Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, remember not all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had
Pate 1
Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college—Nick, 5
He’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that. Page 6
It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body—7
Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth… 9
She was a slender small-breasted girl with an erect carriage—page 11
If we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged; it’s all scientic stuff; it’s been proved—Tom p.13
It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, too watch out or these other races will have control of things. 13
That the best thing a girl can be in this world—a beautiful little fool, page 17
He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. 21
II
This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges…. Sight” page 23hrist
The eyes of Doctor TJ Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—they look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose (23)
He was a a blond, spiritless man, anemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes. 25
She carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some woman can 25
At the news-stand she bought a copy of Town Tattle and a moving-picture magazine, and in the station drug-store some cold dream and a small flask of perfume.27
I want to get one of those dogs,…I want to get one for the apt… 27
It’s a bitch 28
I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon: so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it…29
Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment, page 31
Well they say he is a nephew of a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm’s. That’s where all his money comes from. 32
Daisy was not a Catholic, 33
I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life. 35
Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose 37
III
In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths… 39
Gaudy with primary colors… 40
I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited, 41
Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once, 44
…have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real 45
Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care. 48
You don’t understand, explained the criminal. I wasn’t driving. There’s another man in the car.54
I liked to walk up Firth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives… 56
She left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and then lied about it.57
I had to get out of that tangle back home. 58
I am one of the few honest people I have ever known. 59
IV
He’s a bootlegger, 61
He was never quite still; there was always a
tapping foot somewhere or the impatient
opening and closing of a hand, 64
It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel 64
The girl who was with him got into the papers,
too, because her arm was broken—
she was one of the chambermaids
in the Santa Barbara Hotel. (77)
V
He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and
I think he revalued everything in
his house according to the measure of response it
drew from her well-loved eyes. 91
They’re such beautiful shirts… 92
I’d like to get one of those pink clouds and
put you in it and push you around. 94
VI
He invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby
that a seventeen-year old boy would be likely to
invent and to this conception he was faithful to the end. 98
His heart beat faster and faster as
Daisy’s white face came up to his own.
He knew that when he kissed this girl, and
forever wed his unutterable visions to her
perishable breath, his mind would never romp
again like the mind of God.
vII
You always look so cool, 119…
you resemble the advertisement of the man---
Her voice is full of money 120
An Oxford man!... Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit.” 122
I just remembered today is my birthday 135
I’ve got my wife locked up in there 136
VIII
It was that night he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody-- why that night?
Invisible cloak of his uniform might slip.... what does this mean 149
Gatsby was aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes... p 150
Why does the servant want to drain the pool 153
What is the only compliment Nick gives GG? 154
A couple of months ago ___ came home from the city with her face bruised... who is this 1`57
Small expensive dog leash gave mrytle away
"I told her she might fool me but she couldn't fool God... God knows what you've been doing. He had been looking at ____ 159 (who is he talking to?)
How did Wilson learn to go to Gatsby's house?
Who is: ...that ashen fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees... 161
Who heard the shots and thought not much of them 161
The gardener saw whose body a little way off in the grass? 162
IX
So Wilson was reduced to a man "deranged by grief" in order that the case might remain in its simplest form" 164
I saw it in the Chicago newspaper-- 167
I am staying with some people up here in Greenwhich and they rather expect me to be with them tomorrow. .. 169
What I called up about was a pair of shoes... 169
General Resolves
General Resolves
GENERAL RESOLVES
No wasting time at Shafters...
No more smokeing or chewing
Bath every other day
Read one improving book or magazine per week.
Save 5.00...
Be better to parents
173
"I came across this book by accident" 173
...she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man 177
"Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I?" 177
"He ran over Myrtle like you'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car" 178
They were careless people, tom and daisy... they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money...179
Gatsby believed in the green light... So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. 180