“Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?”

“Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air.”

“That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.”

“So this was how you died, in whispers that you did not hear.”

“He spat into the ocean and said, “Eat that, galanos. And make a dream you’ve killed a man.”

“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”

“When I had finished the book I knew that no matter what Scott did, nor how he behaved, I must know it was like a sickness and be of any help I could to him and try to be a good friend. He had many good, good friends, more than anyone I knew. But I enlisted as one more, whether I could be of any use to him or not. If he could write a book as fine as The Great Gatsby I was sure that he could write an even better one. I did not know Zelda yet, and so I did not know the terrible odds that were against him. But we were to find them out soon enough.”