“Four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.”
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood doesn’t just recount a crime; it dissects the anatomy of violence, the fragility of the American Dream, and the chilling convergence of lives on the desolate Kansas plains.
Published in 1966, this pioneering work of nonfiction blurred the lines between journalism and literature, offering an unprecedented, intimate look at the brutal 1959 murders of the Clutter family and the subsequent journey of their killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock.
These 47 quotes illuminate the novel’s core themes – the desolate landscape mirroring the characters’ inner lives, the complicated psyches of the killers, the community’s grappling with fear and justice, and the pervasive sense of fate.
Step into the world Capote meticulously recreated, where ordinary lives met extraordinary violence.
Fate, Foreshadowing, and the Landscape
Capote masterfully uses the setting and seemingly random events to build a sense of inevitable doom and explore the role of chance.
“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.””
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator), Part 1, Page 3
This opening immediately establishes a sense of isolation and remoteness, foreshadowing the vulnerability of the Clutter family and the feeling that normal protections don’t apply “out there.”
“Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator), Part 1, Page 5
Capote employs irony here; the statement implies a history of significant events, yet Holcomb’s defining “drama” is the horrific, unprecedented violence about to occur, shattering its ordinary existence.
“Autumns reward western Kansas for the evils that the remaining seasons impose: winter’s rough Colorado winds and hip-high, sheep-slaughtering snows; the slushes and the strange land fogs of spring; and summer, when even crows seek the puny shade, and the tawny infinitude of wheatstalks bristle, blaze. At last, after September, another weather arrives, an Indian summer that occasionally endures until Christmas.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator), Part 1, Pages 10-11
“The compulsively superstitious person is also very often a serious believer in fate; that was the case with Perry.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing Perry), Part 1, Page 42
“Once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won’t. Or will-depending. As long as you live, there’s always something waiting, and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith), Part 2, Page 92
Perry’s fatalistic worldview, expressed here, attempts to rationalize his actions and absolve him of personal responsibility, suggesting a passive surrender to dark impulses rather than active choice.
“As long as you live, there’s always something waiting; and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith), Part 2, Page 92
“The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator/Dewey’s perspective), Part 3, Page 245
This chilling assessment highlights the senselessness of the murders, framing them not as a result of specific animosity towards the Clutters, but as a catastrophic convergence of the killers’ internal pathologies and random chance.
“Sorrow and profound fatigue are at the heart of Dewey’s silence. It had been his ambition to learn “exactly what happened in that house that night.” Twice now he’d been told, and the two versions were very much alike, the only serious discrepancy being that Hickock attributed all four deaths to Smith, while Smith contended that Hickock had killed the two women. But the confessions, though they answered questions of how and why, failed to satisfy his sense of meaningful design. The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning. Except for one thing: they had experienced prolonged terror, they had suffered. And Dewey could not forget their sufferings. Nonetheless, he found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger – with, rather, a measure of sympathy – for Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another. Dewey’s sympathy, however, was not deep enough to accommodate either forgiveness or mercy. He hoped to see Perry and his partner hanged – hanged back to back.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator about Dewey), Part 3, Pages 245-246
“The walls of the cell fell away, the sky came down, I saw the big yellow bird.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith describing a dream/vision), Part 4, Page 265
Perry’s recurring dream of the giant yellow bird acts as a symbol of escape and salvation, a powerful, almost divine force intervening against the suffering and degradation he experienced, particularly in the orphanage.
The killers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, reveal their complex and often contradictory natures through their words, dreams, and interactions.
The Killers’ Psyche: Dreams, Damage, and Depravity
“Time rarely weighed upon him, for he had many methods of passing it.”
~Capote Truman, In Cold Blood, (Narrator about Perry), Part 1, Page 15
“You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you can learn how to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay in a letter to Perry), Part 1, Page 43
“You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quiet sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay in a letter to Perry), Part 1, Page 43
“You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learn to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? All right, you think they’re fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself–in time destructive as bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim. This other bacteria, permitted to age, does not kill a man but leaves in its wake the hulk of a creature torn and twisted; there is still fire within his being but it is kept alive by casting upon it faggots of scorn and hate. He may successfully accumulate, but he does not accumulate success, for he is his own enemy and is kept from truly enjoying his achievements.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay in a letter to Perry), Part 1, Pages 43-44
“He may successfully accumulate, but he does not accumulate success, for he is his own enemy and is kept from truly enjoying his achievements.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay in a letter to Perry), Part 1, Page 44
“You pursue the negative,” Willie-Jay had informed him once, in one of his lectures. “You want not to give a damn, to exist without responsibility, without faith or friends or warmth.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay to Perry), Part 1, Pages 44-45
“You want not to give a damn, to exist without responsibility, without faith or friends or warmth.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay to Perry), Part 1, Page 45
“Know what I think?” said Perry. “I think there must be something wrong with us. To do what we did.”‘
“Did what?”
“Out there.”
Dick dropped the binoculars into a leather case, a luxurious receptacle initialed H. W. C. He was annoyed. Annoyed as hell. Why the hell couldn’t Perry shut up? Christ Jesus, what damn good did it do, always dragging the goddam thing up? It really was annoying. Especially since they’d agreed, sort of, not to talk about the goddam thing. Just forget it.
“There’s got to be something wrong with somebody who’d do a thing like that,” Perry said.
“Deal me out, baby,” Dick said. “I’m a normal.” And Dick meant what he said.
He thought himself as balanced, as sane as anyone – maybe a bit smarter than the average fellow, that’s all. But Perry – there was, in Dick’s opinion, “something wrong” with Little Perry.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Dialogue between Perry and Dick), Part 2, Page 108
This exchange reveals the stark contrast in their self-perceptions and rationalizations; Dick insists on his normality while projecting the “wrongness” onto Perry, who seems more haunted by the act itself.
“There’s got to be something wrong with us. To do what we did. ”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith), Part 2, Page 108
“It is no shame to have a dirty face- the shame comes when you keep it dirty.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Barbara Johnson in a letter to Perry), Part 2, Page 140
Barbara’s words, though intended as tough love, encapsulate a central theme: the idea that while external circumstances (a “dirty face”) might be unavoidable, one’s character is defined by the choice to confront or ignore internal flaws.
“In school we only learn to recognize the words and to spell but the application of these words to real life is another thing that only life and living can give us.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Barbara Johnson in a letter to Perry), Part 2, Page 141
“You are a human being with a free will. Which puts you above the animal level. But if you live your life without feeling and compassion for your fellowman—you are as an animal—“an””
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Barbara Johnson in a letter to Perry), Part 2, Page 142
“There is considerable hypocrisy in conventionalism. Any thinking person is aware of this paradox; but in dealing with conventional people it is advantageous to treat them as though they were not hypocrites. It isn’t a question of faithfulness to your own concepts; it is a matter of compromise so that you can remain an individual without the constant threat of conventional pressures.”
~Truman Capote , In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay’s analysis of Barbara’s letter), Part 2, Page 144
“It is easy to ignore the rain if you have a raincoat”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay’s analysis of Barbara’s letter), Part 2, Page 144
“Nothing is more usual than to feel that others have shared in our failures, just as it is an ordinary reaction to forget those who have shared in our achievements.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay’s analysis of Barbara’s letter), Part 2, Page 144
“Be consistent in your attitude towards her and do not add anything to the impression she has that you are weak, not because you need her good-will but because you can expect more letters like this, and they can only serve to increase your already dangerous anti-social instincts.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Willie-Jay’s analysis of Barbara’s letter), Part 2, Page 145
“My acquaintances are many, my friends are few; those who really know me fewer still.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Entry in Perry’s diary), Part 2, Page 146
“They shared a doom against which virtue was no defense”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing the Smith children), Part 2, Page 185
“The enemy was anyone who was someone he wanted to be or who had anything he wanted to have.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing Dick Hickock), Part 2, Page 200
“I despise people who can’t control themselves.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith about Dick Hickock), Part 2, Page 202
“The secret is: People are dumb.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Dick Hickock), Part 3, Page 221
“Hickock whistled and rolled his eyes. “Wow!” he said, and then, summoning his talent for something very like total recall, he began an account of the long ride–the approximately ten thousand miles he and Smith had covered in the past six weeks. He talked for an hour and twenty-five minutes–from two-fifty to four-fifteen–and told, while Nye attempted to list them, of highways and hotels, motels, rivers, towns, and cities, a chorus of entwining names: Apache, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Santillo, San Luis Potosi, Acapulco, San Diego, Dallas, Omaha, Sweetwater, Stillwater, Tenville Junction, Tallahassee, Needles, Miami, Hotel Nuevo Waldorf, Somerset Hotel, Hotel Simone, Arrowhead Motel, Cherokee Motel, and many, many more. He gave them the name of the man in Mexico to whom he’d sold his own 1940 Chevrolet, and confessed that he had stolen a newer model in Iowa.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing Dick Hickock’s recall), Part 3, Page 222
I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Softspoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith), Part 3, Page 244
“I’ve tried to believe, but I don’t, I can’t, and there’s no use pretending.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith), Part 4, Page 262
“Dick loves to steal. It’s an emotional thing with him – a sickness. I’m a thief too, but only if I don’t have the money to pay. Dick, if he was carrying a hundred dollars in his pocket, he’d steal a stick of chewing gum.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Perry Smith about Dick Hickock), Part 4, Page 290
“Two features in his personality make-up stand out as particularly pathological. The first is his ‘paranoid’ orientation toward the world. He is suspicious and distrustful of others, tends to feel that others discriminate against him, and feels that others are unfair to him and do not understand him. He is overly sensitive to criticism that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being made fun of. He is quick to sense slight or insult in things others say, and frequently may misinterpret well-meant communications. He feels the great need of friendship and understanding, but he is reluctant to confide in others, and when he does, expects to be misunderstood or even betrayed. In evaluating the intentions and feelings of others, his ability to separate the real situation from his own mental projections is very poor. He not infrequently groups all people together as being hypocritical, hostile, and deserving of whatever he is able to do to them. Akin to this first trait is the second, an ever -present, poorly controlled rage— easily triggered by any feelings of being tricked, slighted, or labeled inferior by others. For the most part, his rages in the past have been directed at authority figures.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Dr. Jones’ psychiatric evaluation of Perry Smith), Part 4, Page 297
This clinical description provides a framework for understanding Perry’s volatility, his deep-seated mistrust, and his potential for sudden, disproportionate violence rooted in past trauma and a distorted worldview.
The brutal crime sends ripples of fear and suspicion through the community, exposing underlying anxieties and challenging notions of safety and justice.
Community, Justice, and the Aftermath
“One day she told the class, ‘Nancy Clutter is always in a hurry, but she always has time. And that’s one definition of a lady.’ ”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Mrs. Stringer quoting Nancy), Part 1, Page 25
“[Mrs. Clare] is a gaunt, trouser-wearing, woolen-shirted, cowboy-booted, ginger-colored, gingery-tempered woman of unrevealed age (“That’s for me to know, and you to guess”) but promptly revealed opinions, most of which are announced in a voice of rooster-crow altitude and penetration.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing Mrs. Clare), Part 1, Page 67
“A sensible question, as Mrs. Clare, an admirer of logic, though a curious interpreter of it, was driven to admit.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator about Mrs. Clare), Part 1, Page 68
“All the neighbors are rattlesnakes. Varmints looking for a chance to slam the door in your face. It’s the same the whole world over.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Mrs. Clare), Part 1, Page 69
“Just remember: If one bird carried every grain of sand, grain by grain, across the ocean, by the time he got them all on the other side, that would only be the beginning of eternity. ”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Mrs. Clare), Part 1, Page 69
“Imagination, of course, can open any door – turn the key and let terror walk right in.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator), Part 2, Page 88
“How much money did you get from the Clutters?’
‘Between forty and fifty dollars.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Dialogue between Duntz and Perry), Part 3, Page 246
“But when the crowd caught sight of the murderers, with their escort of blue-coated highway patrol-men, it fell silent, as though amazed to find them humanly shaped.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator), Part 3, Page 248
The community’s silence upon seeing the killers suggests a complex reaction – not just fear or anger, but perhaps a disquieting recognition of shared humanity, making the crime even more incomprehensible.
“Those fellows, they’re always crying over the killers. Never a thought for the victims.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Logan Green), Part 4, Page 267
“I believe in hanging. Just so long as I’m not the one being hanged.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Dick Hickock), Part 4, Page 336
“…he called after her as she disappeared down the path, a pretty girl in a hurry…”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing Dewey watching Susan Kidwell), Part 4, Page 343
This final image of Susan, vibrant and moving forward, offers a subtle contrast to the darkness that consumed Nancy, suggesting life’s continuation even in the shadow of profound loss.
“Then starting home, he walked toward the trees, and under them, leaving behind him the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat.”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, (Narrator describing Dewey), Part 4, Page 343
The closing sentence returns to the vast, indifferent landscape, leaving the reader with a sense of quietude and the enduring presence of nature, which witnessed the tragedy and continues long after the human drama has concluded.
In Cold Blood remains a chilling and masterfully told account of a real-life tragedy. Capote’s detailed exploration, captured in these 47 unique quotes and illuminated by analysis, raises enduring questions about the nature of violence, the American psyche, and the intricacies of justice, leaving an indelible mark on the reader.
Looking for more literary insights? Explore our collection of Best Book Quotes With Page Numbers.
A Note on Page Numbers & Edition:
Like clues scattered across the Kansas plains, page numbers may shift between editions. These quotes were meticulously sourced from the Vintage Edition Unstated (February 1, 1994), ISBN-13: 978-0679745587 edition. Always verify with your copy to ensure you’ve found the precise passage that resonates.
Jeremy Mortis, founder of Ageless Investing, applies a rigorous analytical approach (the AAM framework) to distill timeless wisdom and contextualized quotes from classic literature, saving you time while deepening understanding. Learn more about Jeremy’s unique background and methodology on his author bio page.