In 1979, Vogue journalist Cathleen Medwick sat down with Truman Capote for a wide-ranging interview. This was not Capote at the height of his Black and White Ball powers: weighing just 93 pounds and a recovering alcoholic, the author had recently become a persona non grata in New York City after exposing the secrets of his swans in Unanswered Prayers. (The novel was famously never finished.) Yet, Medwick found that such failure had led Capote to possess “an objectivity that can be chilling”—about his personal life, about his work, and most importantly, about the very act of writing itself.
“A writer can have a long career, but very few of them actually do. Because it is so nerve-shattering. It’s this continuous, constant gamble. I mean, if you’re really a good artist,” Capote told her. “If you’re not a good artist, well, it doesn’t matter because your conscience isn’t affected. You’re not continuously striving and reaching and being miserable and happy and taking drugs and drinking and doing something to try to get out of this ghastly tension.”
This Sunday, read the original interview as published in Vogue’s December 1979 issue. |
