"not since the early work of Eudora Welty has there been an example of such striking literary virtuosity. Even if Mr. Capote were ten or twenty years older than he is, his powers of description and evocation, his ability to bend language to his poetic moods, his ear for dialect and for the varied rhythms of speech would be remarkable. In one so young this much skill represents a kind of genius. On the other hand, I find myself deeply antipathetic to the whole artistic-moral purpose of Mr. Capote's novel. In Mr. Capote's case, as with so many of our gifted contemporary artists, I would freely trade eighty percent of his technical skill for twenty percent more value in the uses to which it is put."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
LGBT peopleNovelists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesScreenwriters from the United StatesPostmodern authors
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Diana Trilling Reviewing the Forties (1974)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Truman_Capote
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"But my dear, so few things are fulfilled: what are most lives but a series of incomplete episodes"
"Disco is the best floor show in town. It's very democratic, boys with boys, girls with girls, girls with boys, blacks…"
"It's a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year."
"It seemed odd to Joel that nature did not reflect so solemn an event: flowers of cotton-boll clouds within a sky as s…"
"A resident of over a hundred years in so narrow a world deserved higher homage."
"The brain may take advice, but not the heart, and love, having no geography, knows no boundaries: weight and sink it …"
"The true beloveds of this world are in their lover's eyes lilacs opening, ship lights, school bells, a landscape, rem…"
"Never trust a nigger: their minds and hair are full of kinks in equal measure."
"She beckoned to him, shining and silver, and he knew he must go: unafraid, not hesitating, he paused only at the gard…"
"Past certain ages or certain wisdoms it is very difficult to look with wonder; it is best done when one is a child; a…"