Day 19: Favourite Quote from a Book
Nick’s last words to Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
‘They’re a rotten crowd’, I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.’
I’ve always been glad I said that. It was the only compliment I ever gave him…First he nodded politely, and then his face broke into that radiant and understanding smile…and I thought of the night when I first came to his ancestral home, three months before. The lawn and drive had been crowded with the faces of those who guessed at his corruption- and he had stood on those steps, concealing his incorruptible dream, as he waved them good-bye.
This is not a quote about books. It does not hold any deep philosophical meaning. It is not particularly funny or witty either. But I like it for its simplicity. Each time I reach at this point of the story, my heart goes out to that foolish, impossible man, that dreamer, Gatsby.
A Paperback Life 