Truman Capote citáty

„Realista je člověk, který má správný odstup od svých ideálů.“

—  Truman Capote

„Duši mají jen vrahové.“

—  Truman Capote

„Více slz bývá prolito nad vyslyšenými modlitbami, než nad nevyslyšenými.“

—  Truman Capote

Epigraf (nedokončený)

„Mladá generace si i dnes váží stáří. Ovšem jen pokud jde o víno, whisky a nábytek.“

—  Truman Capote

„Nestarám se, co o mně kdo řekne. Pokud to ovšem není pravda.“

—  Truman Capote

Originál: (en) I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.
Zdroj: Tison Pugh, Truman Capote: A Literary Life at the Movies, University of Georgia Press, 2014, s. 41

„Úspěch je skoro to poslední, co se člověku odpouští.“

—  Truman Capote

„Never trust a nigger: their minds and hair are full of kinks in equal measure.“

—  Truman Capote, kniha Other Voices, Other Rooms

Miss Amy
Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948)

„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.“

—  Truman Capote

From a 1957 interview

„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.“

—  Truman Capote

From a 1952 interview

„It's a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year.“

—  Truman Capote

Reported in Steven D. Price, 1001 Greatest Things Ever Said About California (2007), p. viii.

„More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.“

—  Truman Capote

Disputed

„Disco is the best floor show in town. It's very democratic, boys with boys, girls with girls, girls with boys, blacks and whites, capitalists and Marxists, Chinese and everything else, all in one big mix.“

—  Truman Capote

Quoted in The London Review of Books http://www.lrb.co.uk/v22/n01/hasl02_.html (6 January 2000)

„There is considerable hypocrisy in conventionalism. Any thinking person is aware of this paradox; but in dealing with conventional people it is advantageous to treat them as though they were not hypocrites. It isn't a question of faithfulness to your own concepts; it is a matter of compromise so that you can remain an individual without the constant threat of conventional pressures.“

—  Truman Capote, kniha In Cold Blood

Willy-Jay
In Cold Blood (1965)

„The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.“

—  Truman Capote, kniha In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood (1965)

„I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat.“

—  Truman Capote, kniha In Cold Blood

Perry Smith
In Cold Blood (1965)

„Just remember: If one bird carried every grain of sand, grain by grain, across the ocean, by the time he got them all on the other side, that would only be the beginning of eternity.“

—  Truman Capote, kniha In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood (1965)

„It seemed odd to Joel that nature did not reflect so solemn an event: flowers of cotton-boll clouds within a sky as scandalously blue as kitten-eyes were offensive to their sweet disrespect.“

—  Truman Capote, kniha Other Voices, Other Rooms

At Jesus Fever's funeral
Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948)

„Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize the most natural way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has divined the natural shape of his story is just this: after reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right.“

—  Truman Capote

From a 1957 interview

„Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.“

—  Truman Capote

From "Self-Portrait" (1972)