The Great Gatsby Quotes
A Midwesterner becomes fascinated with his nouveau riche neighbor, who obsesses over his lost love.
[last lines]
Nick Carraway: Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Nick Carraway: Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Nick Carraway: Stocks reached record peaks, and Wall Street boomed a steady golden roar. The parties were bigger, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, and the ban on alcohol had backfired. Making the liquor cheaper. Wall Street was luring the young and ambitious, and I was one of them.
Tom Buchanan: Daisy, can't you see who this guy is, with his house and his parties and his fancy clothes? He is just a front for Wolfsheim, a gangster, to get his claws into respectable folk like Walter Chase.
Jay Gatsby: The only respectable thing about you, old sport, is your money. Your money, that's it. Now I've just as much as you. That means we're equal.
Tom Buchanan: Oh, no. No. We're different. I am. They are.
[points to Daisy]
Tom Buchanan: She is. We're all different from you. You see, we were born different. It's in our blood. And nothing that you do or say or steal... or dream up can ever change that. A girl like Daisy...
Jay Gatsby: [Knocks contents off bar-top & grabs Tom with a raised fist] You shut up! Shut up! You shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Nick Carraway: [Voice-over] Gatsby looked, in that moment, as if he had... killed a man.
Jay Gatsby: The only respectable thing about you, old sport, is your money. Your money, that's it. Now I've just as much as you. That means we're equal.
Tom Buchanan: Oh, no. No. We're different. I am. They are.
[points to Daisy]
Tom Buchanan: She is. We're all different from you. You see, we were born different. It's in our blood. And nothing that you do or say or steal... or dream up can ever change that. A girl like Daisy...
Jay Gatsby: [Knocks contents off bar-top & grabs Tom with a raised fist] You shut up! Shut up! You shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Nick Carraway: [Voice-over] Gatsby looked, in that moment, as if he had... killed a man.
Jay Gatsby: Summer's almost over. It's sad, isn't it? Makes you want to - I don't know - reach out and hold it back.
Nick Carraway: There'll be other summers.
Jay Gatsby: [Turning to Nick] How 'bout a swim?
Nick Carraway: Maybe later.
Jay Gatsby: Hrmm.
Nick Carraway: I'll give you a call - around noon?
Jay Gatsby: Fine, old sport. I'll be at the pool.
[Jay watches Nick walk away for a moment before calling out to him]
Jay Gatsby: Nick? Thank you.
Nick Carraway: [Nick nods and then continues on his way. But then he suddenly turns back] They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.
[the two smile at one another and then Nick walks away, waving a hand back over his shoulder]
Nick Carraway: There'll be other summers.
Jay Gatsby: [Turning to Nick] How 'bout a swim?
Nick Carraway: Maybe later.
Jay Gatsby: Hrmm.
Nick Carraway: I'll give you a call - around noon?
Jay Gatsby: Fine, old sport. I'll be at the pool.
[Jay watches Nick walk away for a moment before calling out to him]
Jay Gatsby: Nick? Thank you.
Nick Carraway: [Nick nods and then continues on his way. But then he suddenly turns back] They're a rotten crowd. You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.
[the two smile at one another and then Nick walks away, waving a hand back over his shoulder]
Daisy Buchanan: And when I was in the delivery room, waking up from the ether, I asked the nurse whether it was a boy or a girl. She said it was a girl - and I turned my head to the side and cried. And then I said, I hope she grows up to be a pretty little fool. That's about the best a girl can hope for these days, to be a pretty little fool.
Nick Carraway: There was music from my neighbor's house through those summer nights. In his enchanted gardens, men and girls came and went like moths, among the whispering and the champagne and the stars. I believe that few people were actually invited to these parties. They just went. They got into automobiles that bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby's door. Come for the party with a simplicity of heart that was it's own ticket of admission.
