The compensation of a very early success is a conviction that life is a romantic matter. In the best sense one stays young.
Interpretation
Early success can lead to a romanticized view of life, keeping one youthful in spirit.
In this quote, Fitzgerald suggests that achieving success at a young age may result in a naive or idealistic perspective on life. This sense of romance fuels a youthful outlook, implying that the innocence and enthusiasm of youth can be maintained through the belief that life is filled with adventure and possibility.
In practice
During a commencement speech to celebrate achieving dreams early in life.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
The rules are simple. Take your work, but never yourself, seriously. Pour in the love and whatever skill you have, and it will come out.
People always make the mistake of calling an idea small or stupid because they don't understand how it's going to evolve.
Try viewing everyone who comes into your life as a teacher.
A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard -- by stealing what he has a taste for, and can carry off
While we are born with curiosity and wonder and our early years full of the adventure they bring, I know such inherent joys are often lost. I also know that, being deep within us, their latent glow can be fanned to flame again by awareness and an open mind.
If you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you have also to believe that no one was ever improved by a book.
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