One always likes one's latest book best. That's a natural feeling. Truman Capote More Quotes by Truman Capote More Quotes From Truman Capote A work of art is one of mystery, the one extreme magic; everything else is either arithmetic or biology. Truman Capote magic design art When I am writing, I try to do it five hours a day but I spend about two of those just fooling around. Truman Capote writing trying two I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods. Truman Capote neighborhood house 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 writing fun art I've got something inside of me, peasantlike and stubborn, and I'm in it till the end of the race. Truman Capote till-the-end race inspirational Intelligence alone can't make a good writer and style alone can't make a good writer - that is, not a really important or significant writer - but the two things together make a really good writer. Truman Capote style important two One of the most difficult things in writing a novel or anything at all is to choose the point of view from which it's going to be told. Truman Capote point-of-view views writing [T]he army of wrongness rampant in the world might as well march over me. Truman Capote army might world A beautiful day with the buoyancy of a bird. Truman Capote beautiful-day beautiful bird The average personality reshapes frequently, every few years even our bodies undergo a complete overhaul - desirable or not, it is a natural thing that we should change. All right, here were two people who never would change. That is what Mildred Grossman had in common with Holly Golightly. They would never change because they'd been given their character too soon; which, like sudden riches, leads to a lack of proportion: the one had splurged herself into a top-heavy realist, the other a lopsided romantic. Truman Capote average character years There's something really the matter with most people who wear tattoos. There's at least some terrible story. I know from experience that there's always something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed, above some little something that Johnny had done in the Navy, even though that's a bad sign...It's terrible. Psychologically it's crazy. Most people who are tattooed, it's the sign of some feeling of inferiority, they're trying to establish some macho identification for themselves. Truman Capote tattoo crazy people 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. Truman Capote creative hands thinking I will say only that all a writer has to work with is the material he has gathered as the result of his own endeavor and observations, and he cannot be denied the right to use it. Condemn, but not deny. Truman Capote deny results use There is no shame — having a dirty face — the shame comes when you keep it dirty. Truman Capote shame faces dirty New York is the only real city-city. Truman Capote real cities new-york I'll pay you a million dollars if you tell your life story for true. Truman Capote dollars stories pay But there were moments when she played songs that made you wonder where she learned them, where indeed she came from. Harsh-tender wandering tunes with words that smacked of pinewoods or prairie. One went: Don’t wanna sleep, Don’t wanna die, Just wanna go a-travelin’ through the pastures of the sky; and this one seemed to gratify her the most, for often she continued it long after her hair hard dried, after the sun had gone and there were lighted windows in the dusk. Truman Capote hair sleep song I hated Hemingway. I liked Faulkner but he was a bore. Truman Capote bores hated It's odd about tattoos. I've talked to several hundred men convicted of homicide-multiple homicide, in most cases. The only common denominate- I could find among them was tattoos. A good eighty percent of them were heavily tattooed. Truman Capote tattoo common men Great fury, like great whisky, requires long fermentation. Truman Capote whisky whiskey long