The Best Jay Gatsby Quotes

Daisy: I wish we could just run away.
Jay: Run away? No. Daisy, darling, that... that wouldn't be respectable. We're gonna live here, in this house. You and me.

Jay: It's so sad, because it's so hard to make her understand. It's so hard to make her understand. I've gotten all these things for her. I've gotten all these things for her and now she just... she just wants to run away.

Jay: If there's anything that you want, just ask for it, old sport.

Meyer: [to Nick] I understand you're looking for a business connection.
Jay: No! No, no. No. No. No. No. This isn't the man, Meyer. Remember, this is the *friend* that I told you about.
Meyer: Oh! Oh, I beg your pardon. I had the wrong man!

Daisy: [after a long pause] Well, I'm certainly glad to see you again.
Jay: I-I'm certainly glad to see you, as well.

Daisy: [dancing with Gatsby] All my life. I wish it could always be like this.
Jay: It will be.
Nick: [narrating] If only if it'd been enough for Gatsby just to hold Daisy. But he had a grand vision for his life and Daisy's part in it.

Policeman: Pull over! Pull over to the curb!
Jay: All right, Old Sport. All right.
[shows him his business card]
Policeman: Right, you are! I'll know you next time, Mr. Gatsby.

Jay: [while recklessly driving his yellow car] Look here, Old Sport. What... What is your opinion of me, anyhow?
Nick: My opinion?
Jay: Yes! Yes, your opinion. I don't want you to get the wrong impression from all these... from all these bizarre accusations you must be hearing. A pack of lies, I guarantee you. You've heard all the stories?
Nick: Oh, well...
Jay: I will tell you God's truth. God's truth about myself. I am the son of some very wealthy people from the Middle West. Sadly, all of them are dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. You see, it's a family tradition.
Nick: [narrating] The way he spoke! No wonder people thought he was lying.

Nick: You can't repeat the past.
Jay: Can't repeat the past?
Nick: No...
Jay: Why, of course you can... of course you can.

Jay: My life, old sport, my life... my life has got to be like this.
[Raises finger to follow shooting star]
Jay: It's got to keep going up.

[repeated line]
Jay: Old sport.

Jay: I knew that when I kissed this girl, I would be forever wed to her.

Jay: [Daisy cries after Gatsby showers her with fancy shirts] What is it? Daisy, Daisy darling, what is it?
Daisy: It... it makes me sad.
Jay: Why?
Daisy: Because...
Nick: [narrating] Five lost years struggled on Daisy's lips, but all she could manage was...
Jay: Why?
Daisy: [laughs] Because I've never seen such beautiful shirts before.

Tom: 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: 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: Oh, no. No. We're different. I am. They are.
[points to Daisy]
Tom: 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: [Knocks contents off bar-top & grabs Tom with a raised fist] You shut up! Shut up! You shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Nick: [Voice-over] Gatsby looked, in that moment, as if he had... killed a man.

Jay: I never realized how extraordinary a nice girl could be.

Jay: You see, I thought you ought to know something about my life. I didn't want you to think I was... Well, I didn't want you to think I was just some nobody.

Jay: I knew it was a great mistake for a man like me to fall in love...

Jay: If it wasn't for the mist, we could see the green light.
Daisy: What green light?
Jay: The one that burns all night at the end of your dock.
Nick: [narrating] Possibly, it had occurred to Gatsby that the colossal significance of that light had vanished forever. Now it was once again just a green light on a dock and his count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.