Quotes from Breakfast at Tiffany's

Truman Capote ·  142 pages

Rating: (174.9K votes)


“Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,' Holly advised him. 'That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."
"She's drunk," Joe Bell informed me.
"Moderately," Holly confessed....Holly lifted her martini. "Let's wish the Doc luck, too," she said, touching her glass against mine. "Good luck: and believe me, dearest Doc -- it's better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“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, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“It may be normal, darling; but I'd rather be natural.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“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 whore: I'd rather have cancer than a dishonest heart.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's



“I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“You know the days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds. You mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you’re getting fat, and maybe it’s been raining too long. You’re just sad, that’s all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you’re afraid, and you don’t know what you’re afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“It’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“You can love somebody without it being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who's a friend.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's



“Home is where you feel at home. I'm still looking.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“She was still hugging the cat. "Poor slob," she said, tickling his head, "poor slob without a name. It's a little inconvenient, his not having a name. But I haven't any right to give him one: he'll have to wait until he belongs to somebody. We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I. I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like." She smiled, and let the cat drop to the floor. "It's like Tiffany's," she said.

[...]

It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets. If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany's, then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Never love a wild thing...If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Everybody has to feel superior to somebody," she said. "But it's customary to present a little proof before you take the privilege.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“I told you: you can make yourself love anybody.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's



“Don't wanna sleep, don't wanna die, just wanna go a-travellin' through the pastures of the sky”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“would you reach in the drawer there and give me my purse. A girl doesn't read this sort of thing without her lipstick.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“I loved her enough to forget myself, my self pitying despairs, and be content that something she thought happy was going to happen.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Leave it to me: I'm always top banana in the shock department.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Good luck and believe me, dearest Doc - it's better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's



“we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“I'm very scared, Buster. Yes, at last. Because it could go on forever. Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Reading dreams. That's what started her walking down the road. Every day she'd walk a little further: a mile, and come home. Two miles, and come home. One day she just kept on.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“You’re wrong. She is a phony. But on the other hand you’re right. She isn’t a phony because she’s a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes. You can’t talk her out of it.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“It should take you about four seconds to walk from here to the door. I'll give you two.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's



“You're wonderful. Unique. I love you.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“I'll never get used to anything. Anybody that does they might as well be dead.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“Love should be allowed. I’m all for it. Now that I’ve got a pretty good idea what it is.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“But it's Sunday, Mr. Bell. Clocks are slow on Sundays.”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's


“What I found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany's. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it;nothing very bad could happen to you there. ”
― Truman Capote, quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's



About the author

Truman Capote
Born place: in New Orleans, Louisiana, The United States
Born date September 30, 1924
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