Books Quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

An unread book is just a block of paper.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Go on, she urged. Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Books mean more than people to me anyway.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

I suppose books mean more than people to me anyway

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“They damned the books I read and the things I thought by calling them immoral; later the fashion changed, and they damned…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The clean book bill will be one of the most immoral measures ever adopted. It will throw American art back into the…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“am merely mourning that so many good or lively books are dead so soon, or only imperfectly kept alive in the cheap…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Nonfiction is a form of literature that lies halfway between fiction and fact.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Every author ought to write every book as if he were going to be beheaded the day he finished it.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“And so we beat on, books against the critics, borne back ceaslessly into rewrites.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

I was in love with a whirlwind, so when the girl threw me over, I went home and finished my novel.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sometimes I don't know whether I'm real or whether I'm a character in one of my novels.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

We want to believe. Young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their Congressmen, countries try to…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“My whole theory of writing I can sum up in one sentence. An author ought to write for the youth of his…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“there's no beauty without poignancy and there's no poignancy without the feeling that it's going, men, names, books, houses--bound for dust--mortal--" a…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

When the first-rate author wants an exquisite heroine or a lovely morning, he finds that all the superlatives have been worn shoddy…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“ToScottie March 11, 1939 p. 387- 388 And please do not leave good books half- finished, you spoil them for yourself...Don't be…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader's mind as differing from, say,…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“As for Tom, the fact that he "had some woman in New York" was really less surprising than that he had been…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Then she added in a sort of childish delight: 'We'll be poor, won't we? Like people in books. And I'll be an…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides. I was rather literary in college — one year I…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Fitzgerald to Zelda's DR. Oct. 1932 "Why can't I sell my short stories?" she says. "Because you're not putting yourself in them.…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm one of those people who go through the world giving other people thrills, but getting few myself except those I read…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I have lived so long within the circle of this book and with these characters that often it seems to me that…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Writing is eternal, For therein the dead heart liveth, the clay-cold tongue is eloquent, And the quick eye of the reader is…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“He tries to go to life. So does every author except the very worst, but after all most of them live on…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves - that's the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Something not going well, Mr. Boxley?" The novelist looked back at him in thunderous silence. "I read your letter," said Stahr. The…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“We want to believe. Young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their congressmen, countries try to…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Once upon a time all the men of mind and genius in the world became of one belief—that is to say, of…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“To Frances Turnbull Nov. 9, 1938 p. 368 I've read the story carefully and, Frances, I'm afraid the price for doing professional…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“A stout, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Dick, meanwhile, turned to Mr. Bloeckman, determined to extract what gold he could from this unpromising load. 'I hear all the new…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I just think of people," she continued, "whether they seem right where they are and fit into the picture. I don't mind…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf, muttering that if one brick was removed the whole…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I'm looking forward tomorrow to a peaceful Sunday spent in bed with Churchill's 'Life Of Marlborough'. Funny that he should be Prime…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

He wanted to appear suddenly to her in novel and heroic colors. He wanted to stir her from that casualness she showed…

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Oh, it doesn't get me. I'm pretty well cloistered, and I suppose books mean more than people to me anyway.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald