Jay Gatsby Quotes

A naive, excitable teenaged reader is a beautiful thing. Someone who's never heard of Elizabeth Bennet or Jay Gatsby, until you tell him. And they all still believe in truth. That's the fun of it. ~ Holly LeCraw

Where the road sloped upward beyond the trees, I sat and looked toward the building where Naoko lived. It was easy to tell which room was hers. All I had to do was find the one window toward the back where a faint light trembled. I focused on that point of light for a long, long time. It made me think of something like the final throb of a soul's dying embers. I wanted to cup my hands over what was left and keep it alive. I went on watching the way Jay Gatsby watched that tiny light on the opposite shore night after night. ~ Haruki Murakami

The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God - a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that - and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it? ~ Chuck Palahniuk

It was this night that he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody - told it to me because "Jay Gatsby" had broken up like glass against Tom's hard malice, and the long secret extravaganza was played out. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

...we often imagined, as we drove, a fictional universe in which Fitzgerald's and Wodehouse's creations might visit one another. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves might have intruded on the rarefied world of the Eggs, silly-ass Bertie stepping into sensible Nick Carraway's shoes, and Reginald Jeeves the fish-eating Spinoza-loving gentleman's gentleman and genius finding a way to give Jay Gatsby the happy-ever-after ending with Daisy Buchanan for which he so profoundly longed. ~ Salman Rushdie

Even before the letter he'd been divided: one part of him swanning with Jay Gatsby around an imaginary Gotham; the other part stolid and earthbound, nose to the deep fryer, in the stifling, sizzling South. ~ Garth Risk Hallberg

The third boat was quite pretty, too ... this one was an Adirondack fishing boat, and even though it was only half finished, I could picture Jay Gatsby in it, casting a line over the side while he yearned for that shallow tramp, Daisy. ~ Kristan Higgins

Like so many of the other books I read, it never seemed to me like a book, but like a place I had lived in, had visited and would visit again, just as all the people in them, every blessed one – Anne of Green Gables, Heidi, Jay Gatsby, Elizabeth Bennet, Scarlet O'Hara, Dill and Scout, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot – were more real than the real people I knew. ~ Anna Quindlen

Rich girls don't marry poor boys, Jay Gatsby ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

This body feels chambered by all
that has escaped
a constellation of intent,
only, perhaps,
the brightest intent of a star,
a piping fish, endangered
by troubled air.
From breath to breath,
the world is disfigured,
reconstructed,
let go. ~ Jay Wright

Forget what it was. Look at what it is. ~ Jay Maisel

You know that old saying about home being where the heart is? I don't think that refers to your own. It's the hearts of other people, the ones you love, that makes a home. ~ Jay Bell

If we are still here to witness the destruction of our planet some five billion years or more hence, then we will have achieved something so unprecedented in the history of life that we should be willing to sing our swansong with joy - Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. ~ Stephen Jay Gould

In the next minute your pants are coming off, my dick is coming all the way out, I'm getting suited up, and then I'm going to be so deep inside of you that all those fears, all that hesitation you're watching me through, won't have any room to fit. There's only going to be room for me and the way we feel when we're together. ~ Jay Crownover

Stupid people hate you for no reason. And stupid people here don't want us to have fun. There's no point in getting angry at people you can't change. All it does is make you feel like crap. That's exactly what they want. We can't let them win. ~ Jay Bell

There are rules about perception, but not about photography. ~ Jay Maisel

The candor was infectious. It spread back to the beginning of your life. You tried to tell her, as well as you could, what it was like being you. You described the feeling you'd always had of being misplaced, of always standing to one side of yourself, of watching yourself in the world even as you were being in the world, and wondering if this was how everyone felt. That you always believed that other people had a clearer idea of what they were doing, and didn't worry quite so much about why. ~ Jay McInerney

Republicans are now saying that Dan Rather should lose his job because he misled the country with bogus information. Which is odd because the Democrats are saying the exact same thing about President Bush. ~ Jay Leno

Our twenties can be like living beyond time. When we graduate from school, we leave behind the only lives we have ever known, ones that have been neatly packaged in semester-sized chunks with goals nestled within. Suddenly, life opens up and the syllabi are gone. There are days and weeks and months and years, but no clear way to know when or why any one thing should happen. It can be a disorienting, cave-like existence. As one twentysomething astutely put it, The twentysomething years are a whole new way of thinking about time. There's this big chunk of time and a whole bunch of stuff that needs to happen somehow. ~ Meg Jay

What is wild cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or copied. It is. Unmistakable, unforgettable, unshakable, elemental as earth and ice, water, fire and air, a quintessence, pure spirit, resolving into no constituents. Don't waste your wildness: it is precious and necessary. ~ Jay Griffiths

Jesse Jackson's in trouble. They're going after this tax thing. Jesse said he will amend his taxes to show the money that he paid to his mistress. See, he has just one mistress. Jesse uses the standard mistress deduction. As opposed to Clinton, who had to itemize. ~ Jay Leno

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown. ~ Stephen Jay Gould

Goodbye, pretty girl. ~ Jay McLean

Someone will eventually succeed in this hunt for a longevity pill, and when they do, one of the greatest advances in the history of medicine will have been achieved. ~ S. Jay Olshansky

That the sun still rose the next morning was incredibly unjust. Someone good had died. People still woke up, had breakfast, went to work, and it was wrong. Flower petals still opened in the sun's early light, and animals still grazed the day away, their minds untroubled. Someone good had died and the world had the audacity to move on. ~ Jay Bell

I want to collapse. I want to fall on the sidewalk right them and drag myself to the ivy. ~ Jay Asher

If my love were an ocean,
there would be no more land.
If my love were a desert,
you would see only sand.
If my love were a star-
late at night, only light.
And if my love could grow wings,
I'd be soaring in flight. ~ Jay Asher

It was the custom when men received nominations to come to me for contributions, and I made them and considered them good paying investments for the company. In a Republican district I was a strong Republican; in a Democratic district I was Democratic, and in doubtful districts I was doubtful. In politics I was an Erie Railroad man all the time. ~ Jay Gould

Ex-D-boy, used to park my Beamer
Now look at me, I can park in my own arena ~ Jay-Z

You must be open to what otherwise may seem to be a detriment to your 'plans'. ~ Jay Maisel

The Buddha's dharma didn't teach peace and relaxation; it taught awakening - often rude awakening. ~ Jay Michaelson

I thought I would be more inspired to have all these new feelings to talk about, but I really just want to hang out with my daughter. ~ Jay-Z

Consciousness is everywhere, let it fill you up. ~ Jay Woodman

Violet couldn't help it - she giggled. Just a little. It was just too much. The whole thing. Jay trying to trick her into revealing her feelings for him. Grady trying to kiss her last night. And then this . . . now . . . she and Jay cuddled up together on her bed . . . making out. It was crazy.
"You think that's funny, huh?" He seemed a little bent that she was laughing at him.
"Joke's on me, I guess," she said, serious now. "I get to sit at home, while you and Lissie Adams go to Homecoming." She tried to sound like it was no big deal, but the truth was that it strung more than she wanted it to.
Jay reached up and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck. He pulled her toward him, staring her in the eye as they closed the distance between them. Violet felt an agonizing thrill at just being so near him again. "I called her last night to candle after I dropped you off." His voice was thick and husky, giving her chills. "I told her I was going to the dance with you instead."
Violet thought her heart was going to burst. It was exactly what she'd wanted to hear for weeks, maybe even for months. But she wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily for his devious little game. "Sorry," she offered with mock sincerity. "I have a date already. Besides, I don't remember you asking me."
He narrowed his eyes at her, as if daring her to argue the point. "I'm your date. Grady can go to hell, for all I care. Maybe Lissie'll go with him and he can paw on her ~ Kimberly Derting

The report on climate change said that humans are very likely making the planet warmer. To which Hillary Clinton said, 'Hey, can't blame me for that one.' ~ Jay Leno

Nothing had changed in that moment when Violet and Jay had finally decided to have sex. Nothing-and everything.
Violet was amazed by what they'd done. Amazed that they'd shared themselves with each other, like that. It was wonderful, and beautiful, and not anything that Violet had expected it to be.
The pain had been more intense than she could have imagined, and she'd done her best not to cry out. But, of course, Jay had noticed as her body tensed, and then she shuddered. Tears dampened her lashes, yet she'd refused to let them fall.
Jay had insisted that they stop, but Violet wouldn't let him. Instead they'd waited, with Jay holding her, stroking her hair, her shoulders, her face, until the pain subsided, becoming something…less.
Later, when she was lying in his arms, she shuddered again.
Jay hugged her tight. "What's wrong? You're not sorry, are you?" The tenderness of his words made her heart twist.
"Of course not. How could I be sorry for that?"
He kissed her eyes, gently. "Then why are you shivering? I didn't mean to hurt you, Vi."
She shook her head, clumsily bumping his chin. "I don't know why." She ran her fingertips over his arm, memorizing the feel of his coarse hairs, his skin, the muscles beneath it all. "It's just…it's a lot. You know?"
Jay smiled. It was a satisfied smile. "Yeah." He leaned back and pulled her to him, tucking her against his shoulder. "It was a lot. A really good lot."
She wanted to shove him, t ~ Kimberly Derting

Rhoda, my mother, was what the neighbors euphemistically termed "a difficult woman." Her misery was like Texas oil: You could drill anywhere and find some. ~ Karla Jay

Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances. ~ Jay Leno

Distributers don't need massive amounts of square feet to stock digital products. Retailers don't need brick-and-mortar stores to sell them. The entire supply chain for these select items has been permanently dematerialized. The marketplace has been blown to bits. ~ Jay Samit

Today, President Barack Obama promised to 'detect and pursue' American tax evaders, as opposed to his first 100 days, in which he detected and nominated American tax evaders. ~ Jay Leno

I don't necessarily put on an act when I go on Jay Leno or dress differently in public than I do in private. I'd like to think I'm the same person, more or less. ~ Mila Kunis

Ex-convicts prepared the eggs for the White House's Easter Egg Roll. It's nice to see the White House reaching out to former members of Congress. ~ Jay Leno

At this point in our global ecological crisis, the survival of humanity will require a fundamental shift in our attitude toward nature: from finding out how we can dominate and manipulate nature to how we can learn from her. In this brilliant and hopeful book, Jay Harman shows us how far the new field of Biomimicry has already progressed toward this goal. The Shark's Paintbrush makes for fascinating and joyful reading - much needed in these dark times. ~ Fritjof Capra

One thing a narcissist doesn't like is to look in a mirror that is in any way genuinely reflective of what's on the other side of it. ~ Jay Parini

I don't know if you've ever been to England, but as soon as they find out you're from America, they hate you. They just think they're more sophisticated than we are. They're so pissed at us. You know what it is? They're mad because they lost the Revolutionary War, and they should be because there was only like nine of us. ~ Jay Mohr

Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience, ~ Jay Paterno

You always end up with too many pictures to edit and too few that you feel 'got it'. ~ Jay Maisel

When President Chirac gave [President] Bush a souvenir statue of the Eiffel Tower ... Bush said 'This is great! A little oil rig!' ~ Jay Leno

Australia! I wanna see some saltwater crocodiles! ~ Jay Park

As you know, John McCain is an older, white-haired man who has been in the Senate for over twenty years, voted for the Iraq War, and said Barack Obama did not have the experience to be president. I'm sorry, that's our intro for next week when Joe Biden is on, I got confused. ~ Jay Leno

And i walked for hours the mist growing thick and whole the thought of disappaering like that, so simply, made me so happy ~ Jay Asher

I'm very used to stages and dressing rooms. And dare I say it, much as I like being at home, I love the buzz of a new hotel room. It never quite loses its thing. ~ Jay Kay

One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight. They stopped here and turned toward each other. Now it was a cool night with that mysterious excitement in it which comes at the two changes of the year. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

He never had time to read on the outside, but here he joins a book club where they discuss The Great Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned and Tender Is The Night with a fervent young professor who seems unaware that anyone other than F. Scott Fitzgerald has ever written a book. ~ Emily St. John Mandel

I still just like everybody else need to meet quotas with my spins, with my buzz and make my way into the office. It has to be undeniable; the world has to know about you before Jay-Z makes a call. ~ Drake

You can open up a centenarian's brain, and you'll see some areas that look like that of a 50-year-old or of a 110-year-old. You can have variation in the basic process of aging, called senescence, in different parts of the same body. ~ S. Jay Olshansky

I came to know Gore Vidal in the mid-1980s, when I was living in southern Italy, virtually a neighbour, and our friendship lasted until his death in 2012. Needless to say, he was a complicated and often combative man. ~ Jay Parini

Goals have been called the building blocks of adult personality, and it is worth considering that who you will be in your thirties and beyond is being built out of goals you are setting for yourself today. ~ Meg Jay