« And
I swear, it never crossed my mind about Holly. You can love somebody without it
being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who’s a friend. »
« It
was a warm evening, nearly summer, and she wore a slim cool black dress, black
sandals, a pearl choker. For all her chi thinness, she had an almost
breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap and lemon cleanness, a rough pink
darkening in the cheeks. Her mouth was large, her nose upturned. A pair of dark
glasses blotted out of her eyes. It was a face beyond childhood, yet this side
of belonging to a woman. I thought her anywhere between sixteen and thirty ;
as it turned out, sha was shy two months of her nineteenth birthday. »
« They
were large eyes, a little blue, a little green, dotted with bits of brown :
vari-coloured, like her hair ; and, like her hair, they gave out a lively
warm light. ‘I suppose you think I’m very brazen. Or très fou. »
« I
can’t get excited by a man until he’s forty-two. I know this idiot girl who
keeps telling me I ought to go to a head-shrinker ; she says I have a
father complex. Which is so much merde. I simply trained myself to like older
men, and it was the smartest thing I ever did. »
« I
don’t want to own anything until I know I’ve found the place where me and
things belong together. »
« it’s
tacky to wear diamonds before you’re forty. »
« She
was well over six feet, taller than most men there. They straightened their
spines, sucked in their stomachs ; there was a general contest to match
her swaying height. »
« Theys
ay the more stupid you are the braver. »
« Her
bedroom was consistent with her parlour : it perpetuated the same camping-out
atmosphere ; crates and suitcases, everything packed and ready to go, like
the belongings of a criminal who feels the law not far. »
« Holly
and libraries were not an easy association to make. »
« Mille
tendresses »
« I
wondered what his name was, for I was certain he had one now, certain he’s
arrived somewhere he belonged. African hut or whatever, I hope Holly has, too. »
Breakfast
at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
« How
do you feel if you’re in love ? she asked. Ah, said Rosita with swooning
eyes, you feel as though pepper has been sprinkled on your heart, as though
tiny fish are swimming in your veins. »
« He
was a ginger colour, his skin shiny as a lemon, smooth as a guava leaf, and the
tilt of his head was as arrogant as the black and scarlet bird he held in his
hands. Ottilie was used to boldly smiling at men ; but now her smile was
fragmentary, it clung to her lips like cake crumbs. »
« Royal’s
house was like a house of flowers ; wistaria sheltered the roof, a crutain
of vines shaded the windows, lilies bloomed at the door. »
House
of flowers – Truman Capote
« His
voice with its Cuban accent was soft and sweet as a banana. »
« To
be alive was to remember brown rivers where the fish run, and sunlight on a
lady’s hair. »
A
Diamond Guitar – Truman Capote
« Imagine
a morning in late November. »
« Tomorrow
the kind of work I like best begins : buying. Cherries and citron, ginger
and vanilla and canned Hawaiian pineapple, rinds and raisins and walnuts and
whisky and oh, so much flour, butter, so many eggs, spices, flavourings :
why, we’ll need a pony to pull the buggy home. »
« They
call him Haha because he’s so gloomy, a man who never laughs. »
« ‘My,
how foolish I am !’ my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman
remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. »
A
Christmas Memory – Truman Capote
