QuoteProject
Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the wires inside a lightbulb. And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the very stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing.
Truman Capote
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on how intense heat reveals the hidden qualities and life of a city.

Truman Capote's quote poetically describes the transformative power of hot weather on a city, suggesting that elevated temperatures not only reveal the city's infrastructure but also its very essence and vitality. The imagery of a 'white brain' and 'heart of nerves' evokes a sense of the city as a living organism, animated by its inhabitants and environment, with a smell that transcends the ordinary and connects the reader to the raw, almost primal nature of urban life.

Themes

CityHeatUrbanLifeImagery

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about urban life and how it changes with the seasons.

More from Truman Capote

I want to still be me when I wake up one fine morning and have breakfast at Tiffany´s.
Truman CapoteRead
All writing, all art, is an act of faith. If one tries to contribute to human understanding, how can that be called decadent? It's like saying a declaration of love is an act of decadence. Any work of art, provide it springs from a sincere motivation to further understanding between people, is an act of faith and therefore is an act of love.
Truman CapoteRead
No one will ever know what 'In Cold Blood' took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.
Truman CapoteRead
I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together.
Truman CapoteRead
The quietness of his tone italicized the malice of his reply.
Truman CapoteRead
My yardstick is how somebody treats me.
Truman CapoteRead

Similar quotes

One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.
Jenny HolzerRead
The true function of art is to criticize, embellish and edit nature… the artist is a sort of impassioned proof-reader, blue penciling the bad spelling of God.
H. L. MenckenRead
...and the lamp having at last resigned itself to death. There was nothing now but firelight in the room, And every time a flame uttered a gasp for breath It flushed her amber skin with the blood of its bloom.
Charles BaudelaireRead
I've been told, and I think I recognize it, that there's a cinematic quality to my writing, with a sense of image and place and scene - and, some would say, my tendency to finish my books the way Hollywood finishes its films.
Khaled HosseiniRead
Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
Ben JonsonRead
Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic designed as mediator between this strange hostile world and us.
Pablo PicassoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Truman Capote | QuoteProject