September 22 marked the beginning of autumn, and it reminded me of this wonderful quote from The Great Gatsby,
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.
As the quote repeated itself in my brain, I wondered what part of the book it came from. There are so many quotes like this one that people lift from books and share across Instagram and other social media sites, devoid of their original context.
So I went in search of the quote and found it on page 107 of my edition of The Great Gatsby. It’s a line of dialogue that the character Jordan says in reply to Gatsby’s love interest, Daisy:
‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon,’ cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?’
‘Don’t be morbid,’ Jordan said. ‘Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.’
The writer in me sprang to attention and said, “What masterfully written dialogue!”
Perhaps I could glean several tips from Fitzgerald that would help me to write masterful dialogue as well.
So I continued reading a little more of the scene and came away with these three takeaways.
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