Genius Quotes

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: [talking to his wife from a phone booth] The surgeon said his brain was filled with tumors. A myriad of tumors. That's the word he used, "myriad". I think Tom would like that. There's nothing they can do, you see. The doctor said it was a matter of weeks. Might regain consciousness, most likely not.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: No, you stay with Nancy. You stay with Nancy. You should, you know, prepare her. She always loved Tom the most. The plural of "myriad" is "myriads", by the way.

[first lines]

John Wheelock: [throwing down a manuscript onto his desk] Might want to read this one.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Please tell me it's double-spaced.

John Wheelock: No such luck.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Where'd you get it?

John Wheelock: A woman named Aline Bernstein. The stage designer? The author's her protege. Every other publisher in town has already tuned it down.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Is it any good?

John Wheelock: Good? No. But it's unique.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: A quick look.

John Wheelock: Thanks, Max. I'm in your debt.

Bertha Perkins: [about manuscript] That's a very long paragraph.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: It started four pages ago.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: You're too young to be in love.

Bertha Perkins: How old do you have to be?

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Forty.

Thomas Wolfe: [hand on his manuscript like an oath] My heart bleeds to see any of it go. But I guess it's die dog or eat the hatchet.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: You took the words right out of my mouth.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Imagine you're a reader. You're wandering through a bookstore and lots of books, and you see a book titled "Trimalchio in West Egg" and you see one titled The "Great Gatsby."Which are you going to pick up?

Thomas Wolfe: Gatsby!

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: That's why Scott changed his original title. He knew it needed a bit more meat.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: To be a novelist, you have to select. You have to shape and sculpt.

Thomas Wolfe: Why?

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Because we've been working for two years and the book's only 100 pages shorter!

Thomas Wolfe: So I've disappointed you yet again.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Yes, very much.

Thomas Wolfe: Well, I'm sorry I'm not decent enough for your fine dinner parties and your fine friends. But before you drag me out to the woodshed, I think you ought to look at who's giving the lesson. Am I supposed to grow up like you?

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: No, Tom, but you're supposed to grow up.

Thomas Wolfe: The last time I saw my father, I was standing as a train window, when I went north to college. He just got smaller and smaller as we pulled away, until I couldn't see him anymore. That train carried me to my life; beyond the hills and over the rivers. And always the rivers run. Sometimes they flow away from my father, and sometimes they flow back to his door. I have to prove I can do it by myself.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Then prove it.

Thomas Wolfe: [showing up unannounced] Scott! I know it was a while ago but I'm sorry. I was a damn brute. I wouldn't blame you for slamming the door in my face. You don't know how sorry I am for talking to you and Zelda like that. Please, say you forgive me.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: Believe it or not I've been drunk myself once or twice.

Thomas Wolfe: Who better to talk to? The man who created something immortal. More and more I trouble myself with that. "The legacy." Will anyone care about Thomas Wolfe in 100 years? Ten years? When I was young, I asked myself that question every day.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: I used to trouble myself like that every day. Now I ask myself, "Can I write one good sentence."

[last lines]

Thomas Wolfe: [Max reading Tom's deathbed letter] Dear Max, I've got a hunch, and I wanted to write these words to you. I've made a long voyage and been to a strange country, and I've seen the dark man very close. And I don't think I was too much afraid of him. But I want most desperately to live. I want to see you again. For there is such an impossible anguish and regret for all I can never say to you, for all the work I have to do. I feel as if a great window has been opened on life. And if I come through this, I hope to God I am a better man and can live up to you. But most of all, I wanted to tell you, no matter what happens, I shall always feel about you the way I did that November day when you met me at the boat and we went on top of the building and all the strangeness and the glory and the power of life were below. Yours always, Tom.

Thomas Wolfe: [looking at the books on the shelf in Perkins' office] Are all these your authors?

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Not Tolstoy.

Thomas Wolfe: [grabs his massive manuscript and holds out his hand to Perkins to say goodbye]

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Mr. Wolfe, we intend to publish your book.

Thomas Wolfe: [looks at him in disbelief] Ha!

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: If that is acceptable to you.

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: [looking at the three cates containing the manuscript of Thomas Wolfe's new book] This - is Of Time and the River? Well done. Now go home and get some sleep.

Thomas Wolfe: I... I...

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Let me read it.

Thomas Wolfe: Read it kindly. Please.

Thomas Wolfe: I'm sorry I'm not decent enough for your fine dinner parties and your fine friends, but before you drag me out to the wood shed, I think you ought to look at who is giving the lesson. Am I supposed to grow up like you?

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: No, Tom, but you're supposed to grow up.

Aline Bernstein: I haven't quite decided who I'm going to shoot yet. Tom, myself, or you. Have you a suggestion?

Maxwell Evarts Perkins: Suicide seems a bit extreme and killing Tom won't help much, so I suppose that leaves me.