Q 13

PLAYBOY: Are the rich really different from you and me?

Truman Capote: Yes, they're more disloyal. In the long run, the rich run together, no matter what. They will cling until they feel it's safe to be disloyal, then no one can be more so. They also serve better vegetables.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: It seems as if the rich--that is, the old rich--have lost some allure. What was it in the first place and what happened to it?

Truman Capote: I think the thing about the rich is their great terror. You see, their only identification is their money. They have this real fear about money, because if they lose it, they lose their identity. What they have lost--what you call allure--is their stability, because no one is really rich anymore. Being rich is like the Presidency--it just doesn't have the cachet it used to. On the whole, I don't think young people are interested in rich people today. I mean, who the hell wants a 180-foot yacht and 25 servants? That sort of thing had to do with money being the only thing that gave a person identity, so you had to spend more and more to get me more identity.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Define decadence--once and for all.

Truman Capote: Decadence is deliberate cruelty. It is any act you perpetrate against another person that you know is going to hurt him--and you do it on purpose, with full knowledge that you are doing it.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Who is America's most unattractive public couple?

Truman Capote: Hands down, Julie and David Eisenhower. No competition.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: Who is the person most responsible for pushing America down the tubes?

Truman Capote: Sammy Davis Jr.--if you're referring to television. You simply cannot turn on the damn set without seeing that ugly, hideous face, with his million dollars' worth of jewelry, jingling and jangling, hugging and kissing somebody. Yuuuch! God!

Q 18

PLAYBOY: What is the future of democracy?

Truman Capote: The same as Broadway's. Everything seems to be picking up. Theaters last year made more money than ever. Yes, it's like Broadway--everybody always says it's dead, it's gone--but it always comes back.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: What is your idea of a fun date?

Truman Capote: Miss Piggy or Anita Bryant.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: In a movie about your life who would you like to play you?

Truman Capote: Greta Garbo. It'll be her great comeback part.