Truman Capote Quotes

Did you ever, in that wonderland wilderness of adolesence [sic] ever, quite unexpectedly, see something, a dusk sky, a wild bird, a landscape, so exquisite terror touched you at the bone? And you are afraid, terribly afraid the smallest movement, a leaf, say, turning in the wind, will shatter all? That is, I think, the way love is, or should be: one lives in beautiful terror.

All writing, all art, is an act of faith. If one tries to contribute to human understanding, how can that be called decadent? It's like saying a declaration of love is an act of decadence. Any work of art, provide it springs from a sincere motivation to further understanding between people, is an act of faith and therefore is an act of love.

I couldn't understand a sense of unease that multiplied until I could hear my heart beating.

Most of life is so dull it is not worth discussing, and it is dull at all ages. When we change our brand of cigarette, move to a new neighborhood, subscribe to a different newspaper, fall in and out of love, we are protesting in ways both frivolous and deep against the not to be diluted dullness of day-to-day living.

I despise people who can't control themselves.

there is only one unpardonable sin — deliberate cruelty. All else can be forgiven.

Always, the path unwinds through lemony sun pools and pitch vine tunnels.

Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.

Imagination, of course, can open any door — turn the key and let terror walk right in.

Shoot, boy, the country's just fulla folks what knows everything, and don't understand nothing, just fullofem.

Time rarely weighed upon him, for he had many methods of passing it.

I felt infuriatingly left out — a tugboat in drydock while she, glittery voyager of secure destination, steamed down the harbor with whistles whistling and confetti in the air.

It is very seldom that a person loves anyone they cannot in some way envy.

I thought of the future, and spoke of the past.

I don't think I've ever drunk champagne before breakfast before. With breakfast on several occasions, but never before before.