30 The Great Gatsby Quotes About Daisy Buchanan (and By Her)

Discover the most important The Great Gatsby quotes about Daisy Buchanan (and by Daisy). Below are famous lines and details about the female love interest in this easy-to-read classic book by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

You’ll be able to easily read and use these quotes for academic or personal use, such as essays, presentations, social media posts, or just to get more insight into the book. Let’s get literary!

“You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy.” (Chapter 1)

“I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.” (Chapter 1)

“[H]e’s read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy’s name.” (Chapter 4)

“They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but [Daisy] came out with an absolutely perfect reputation. Perhaps because she doesn’t drink. It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don’t see or care.” (Chapter 4)

“‘Here, deares.’ She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls. ‘Take ’em downstairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine. Say ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!.'” (Chapter 4)

“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.” (Chapter 5)

“He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs.” (Chapter 5)

“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion… No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” (Chapter 5)

“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” (Chapter 5)

“He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was.” (Chapter 6)

“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house – just as if it were five years ago.” (Chapter 6)

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” (Chapter 6)

“‘Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly.” (Chapter 7)

“‘Oh, you want too much!’ she cried to Gatsby. ‘I love you now—isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.'” (Chapter 7)

“Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes.” (Chapter 8)

“‘Was Daisy Driving?’ ‘Yes,” he said after a moment, “but of course I’ll say I was.'” (Chapter 8)

“He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free.” (Chapter 8)

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” (Chapter 9)

“In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year […] Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.” (Chapter 1)

“Tom’s getting very profound. He reads deep books with long words in them.” (Chapter 1)

“I looked outdoors for a minute, and it’s very romantic outdoors. There’s a bird on the lawn that I think must be a nightingale come over on the Cunard or White Star Line. He is singing away […] It’s romantic, isn’t it Tom?” (Chapter 1)

“‘You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow,’ she went on in a convinced way. ‘Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.’ Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. ‘Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!'” (Chapter 1)

“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people.” (Chapter 4)

“‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.'” (Chapter 5)

“‘What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon,’ cried Daisy, ‘and the day after that, and the next thirty years?'” (Chapter 7)

“I did love him once—but I loved you too.” (Chapter 7)

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