F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

Modern influential 125 sayings

Sayings by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I’m glad I don’t have to live over again. I don’t want to. It’s a bore.

1940 — Letter to his daughter, Scottie
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

1925 — The Great Gatsby
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Sometimes I don't know whether I'm a god or a devil. Sometimes I don't know whether I'm a saint or a sinner.

1920s — Letter to Maxwell Perkins
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I must be a fantastic, or I should not be where I am.

1939 — Letter to his daughter, Scottie
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

It was always the becoming he loved, never the being.

1922 — The Beautiful and Damned
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

1920s — Letter to his editor
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I never felt that I had been a part of anything, or that I had belonged anywhere.

1936 — The Crack-Up
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I left my heart in San Francisco. No, I left it in a bar.

1930s — Apocryphal, but widely attributed to him in a humorous context.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.

1925 — The Great Gatsby
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I don't want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.

1918 — Letter to Zelda Fitzgerald
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I’m not a romantic, I’m a realist. I don’t believe in happy endings, but I do believe in right now.

Unknown — Attributed, but hard to pinpoint exact source.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

There are no second acts in American lives.

1941 — The Last Tycoon
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want.

Unknown — Attributed, but precise source elusive.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I want to be a part of those who make the world a better place, not just those who consume it.

Unknown — Attributed, but hard to verify a specific source.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Life is essentially a cheat and a disappointment to a man who has attained forty years, who has for twenty years sweet-talked himself into the believe that life was a good thing.

1930s — Notebooks
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I talk too much, I think too much, I love too much.

Unknown — Attributed, but specific source not readily available.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I’m not a writer. I’m a typist.

Unknown — Apocryphal, often used to express humility.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I wish I could write about all the things I think about, but I don't know how to put them into words.

Unknown — Attributed, but specific source not easily found.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

Unknown — Attributed to Woody Allen, often misattributed to Fitzgerald.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

I write because I have to. I write because I can’t not write.

Unknown — Attributed, but specific source is not clear.
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable