Quotes by Truman Capote

I love New York, even though it isnt mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.

New York is a diamond iceberg floating in river water.

Very few authors, especially the unpublished, can resist an invitation to read aloud.

A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. Thats why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.

The most dangerous thing in the world is to make a friend of an Englishman because hell come sleep in your closet rather than spend 10 shillings on a hotel.

Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.

In California everyone goes to a therapist is a therapist or is a therapist going to a therapist.

Ive always seen myself as a winner even as a kid. If I hadnt I just might have gone down the drain a couple of times. Ive got something inside of me peasantlike and stubborn and Im in it til the end of the race.

Thats not writing thats typing.

It was as if I were an oyster and somebody forced a grain of sand into my shell -- a grain of sand that I didnt know was there and didnt particularly welcome. Then a pearl started forming around the grain and it irritated me, made me angry, tortured me sometimes. But the oyster cant help becoming obsessed with the pearl.

I tell you, my dear, Narcissus was no egoist… he was merely another of us who, in our unshatterable isolation, recognized, on seeing his reflection, the one beautiful comrade, the only inseparable love… poor Narcissus, possibly the only human who was ever honest on this point.

Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.

Love is a chain of love as nature is a chain of life.

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.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what its about, but the inner music that words make.

Fame is only good for one thing - they will cash your check in a small town.

When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip; and the whip is intended for self-flagellation solely.

Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down.

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour.”

“Id rather have cancer than a dishonest heart. Which isnt being pious. Just practical. Cancer may cool you, but the others sure to.”