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Esky.(F. Scott Fitzgerald's oft quoted line about second acts)(Brief Article)

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From: Esquire
Date: 19990901
Author:

"There are no second acts in American lives," F. Scott Fitzgerald observed, and promptly died.

This half aphorism, found in notes for a never-finished novel, perhaps the most oft quoted of Fitzgerald's work, largely because it is trenchant and almost perfectly wrong.

No Second Acts has become the straw maxim of choice for the ink-stained wretch with an impatient dinner date:

   F. Scott Fitzgerald, a famous author Mike Tyson enjoys quoting, once wrote, 
   "There are no second acts in American lives." But Tyson, a tormented soul 
   at 32, proved Fitzgerald wrong Saturday ...

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