59 Truman Capote Quotes About Life (PHILOSOPHY)

Top 13 Most Famous Truman Capote Quotes (BEST)

“All human life has its seasons and cycles, and no one’s personal chaos can be permanent. Winter, after all, gives way to spring and summer, though sometimes when branches stay dark and the earth cracks with ice, one thinks they will never come, that spring, and that summer, but they do, and always.”
Truman Capote

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. — **Failure** is the condiment that gives **success** its flavor.

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

Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot. — Anyone who ever gave you **confidence**, you owe them a lot.

A man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat. He stores up a lot of poison. — A man who doesn’t **dream** is like a man who doesn’t sweat. He stores up a lot of poison.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. — The best way to find out if you can **trust** somebody is to trust them.

“The brain may take advice, but not the heart, and love having no geography, knows no boundaries: weight and sink it deep, no matter, it will rise and find the surface: and why not? Any love is natural and beautiful that lies within a person’s nature; only hypocrites would hold a man responsible for what he loves, emotional illiterates and those of righteous envy, who, in their agitated concern, mistake so frequently the arrow pointing to heaven for the one that leads to hell.”
Truman Capote

Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.

The good thing about writing books is that you can dream while you are awake. — The good thing about writing **books** is that you can **dream** while you are awake.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written

I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true. — I don’t care what anybody says about me as long as it isn’t true.

If you weren't here, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be, doing anything you wanted to do, where would you be and what would you be doing? — If you weren’t here, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be, doing anything you wanted to do, where would you be and what would you be doing?

Have you never heard what the wise men say: all of the future exists in the past. — Have you never heard what the wise men say: all of the **future** exists in the past.

5 Inspirational Truman Capote Quotes About Life

“You call yourself a free spirit, a “wild thing,” and you’re terrified somebody’s gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you’re already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it’s not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It’s wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.”
Truman Capote

There is only one unpardonable sin-deliberate cruelty. All else can be forgiven. — There is only one unpardonable sin-deliberate cruelty. All else can be **forgiven**.

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

“Past certain ages or certain wisdoms it is very difficult to look with wonder; it is best done when one is a child; after that, and if you are lucky, you will find a bridge of childhood and walk across it.”
Truman Capote

There is nobody in the world that you can't get if you really concentrate on it, if you really want them. You've got to want it to the exclusion of everything else. — There is nobody in the world that you can’t get if you really concentrate on it, if you really want them. You’ve got to want it to the exclusion of everything else.

2 Truman Capote Quotes on Creativity

Most people don't find their creativity. There are more unsung geniuses that don't even know they have great talent. — Most people don’t find their **creativity**. There are more unsung **geniuses** that don’t even know they have great **talent**.

Personally, I rather think that if you're not creative you've got a problem on your hands. If you are creative you've got a double problem. — Personally, I rather think that if you’re not creative you’ve got a problem on your hands. If you are creative you’ve got a double problem.

3 Truman Capote Quotes on Places

I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. — I don’t want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together.

I love New York, even though it isn't 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. — I love **New York**, even though it isn’t 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.

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

8 Truman Capote Quotes on Love and Friendship

Friendship is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can't have too many friends because then you're just not really friends. — **Friendship** is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can’t have too many friends because then you’re just not really friends.

Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.

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

Really being friends is the most important part, I think, of any relationship. — Really being friends is the most important part, I think, of any **relationship**.

He loved her, he loved her, and until he'd loved her she had never minded being alone. — He loved her, he loved her, and until he’d loved her she had never minded being alone.

Never love a wild thing. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky. — Never love a wild thing. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You’ll end up looking at the sky.

You can love somebody without it being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who's a friend. — You can love somebody without it being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who’s a friend.

I told you: you can make yourself love anybody.

10 Truman Capote Quotes on Literature and Writing

“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

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make. — To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make.

That isn't writing at all, it's typing. — That isn’t writing at all, it’s typing.

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.

“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.”
Truman Capote

I like to talk on TV about those things that aren't worth writing about. — I like to talk on TV about those things that aren’t worth writing about.

You can't blame a writer for what the characters say. — You can’t blame a writer for what the characters say.

I got this idea of doing a really serious big work - it would be precisely like a novel, with a single difference: Every word of it would be true from beginning to end. — I got this idea of doing a really serious big work – it would be precisely like a novel, with a single difference: Every word of it would be true from beginning to end.

It's a very excruciating life facing that blank piece of paper every day and having to reach up somewhere into the clouds and bring something down out of them. — It’s a very excruciating life facing that blank piece of paper every day and having to reach up somewhere into the clouds and bring something down out of them.

14 Truman Capote Quotes that Will Make You Think

“The answer is good things only happen to you if you’re good. Good? Honest is more what I mean. Be anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a w***e: I’d rather have cancer than a dishonest heart.”
Truman Capote