The Great Gatsby

I decided I'd spend my last leisurely day of break with a good book. I've been wanting to read The Great Gatsby for a while now and thought there'd be no better time than now. I'm about half-way through and I picked out a few memorable lines that I just had to share.

"I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew."

"It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again... there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered "Listen," a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour." (Nick describing his cousin, Daisy)

"Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it." - Daisy

"For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk." (Nick and Daisy on the veranda)

"Mr. Mckee was asleep on a chair with his fists clenched in his lap, like a photograph of a man of action. Taking out my handkerchief I wiped from his cheek the remains of the spot of dried lather that had worried me all the afternoon."(This reminds me of Adrian Monk. I laughed out loud.)

"People disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other, found each other a few feet away." (Nick explaining the early hour rituals after an evening party)

"He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced or seemed to face - the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." (Nick describing Gatsby after finally being introduced)


"It started because she passed so close to some workmen that our fender flicked a button on one man's coat.
    'You're a rotten driver,' I protested 'Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all.'
    'I am careful.'
    'No, you're not.'
    'Well, other people are,' she said lightly.
    'What's that got to do with it?'
    'They'll keep out of my way,' she insisted. 'It takes two to make an accident.'
    'Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself.'
    'I hope I never will,' she answered. 'I hate careless people. That's why I like you.'"
(Jordan Baker defending her driving)