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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

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Truman Capote
Age: 59 †
Born: 1924
Born: September 30
Died: 1984
Died: August 25
Actor
Artist
Author
Autobiographer
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Writer
New Orleans
Louisiana
Truman Streckfus Persons
Truman Garcia Capote
Endeavor
Use
Cannot
Observation
Right
Deny
Work
Material
Observations
Result
Gathered
Materials
Condemn
Writer
Denied
Results

More quotes by Truman Capote

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At one time I used to keep notebooks with outlines for stories. But I found doing this somehow deadened the idea in my imagination. If the notion is good enough, if it truly belongs to you, then you can't forget it-it will haunt you till it's written.
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I live in Brooklyn. By choice. Those ignorant of its allures are entitled to wonder why.
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Norman Mailer thinks William Burroughs is a genius, which I think is ludicrous beyond words. I don't think William Burroughs has an ounce of talent.
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You can’t give your heart to a wild thing.
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We all, sometimes, leave each other there under the skies, and we never understand why.
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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.
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I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.
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A man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat. He stores up a lot of poison.
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Are the dead as lonesome as the living?
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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.
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No one will ever know what 'In Cold Blood' took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.
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Of many magics, one is watching a beloved sleep: free of eyes and awareness, you for a sweet moment hold the heart of him helpless, he is then all, and however irrationally, you have trusted him to be, man-pure, child-tender.
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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.
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I'll pay you a million dollars if you tell your life story for true.
Truman Capote
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To wake up one morning and feel that I was a last a grown-up person, emptied of resentment, vengeful thoughts and other wasteful childish emotions. To find myself, in other words, an adult. Truman Capote
Truman Capote
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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
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Dizzy with excitement is no mere phrase.
Truman Capote
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I also write the last paragraph or page of a story first. That way I always know what I'm working towards.
Truman Capote
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It's bad enough in life to do without something YOU want but confound it, what gets my goat is not being able to give somebody something you want THEM to have.
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It’s better to look at the sky than live there
Truman Capote