Clifton Collins Jr. credited as playing...
Perry Smith
- Truman Capote: Perry, I know what 'exacerbate' means.
- Perry Smith: Okay... well...
- Truman Capote: There is not a word or a sentence or a concept that you can illuminate for me.
- Perry Smith: I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat.
- Perry Smith: [of Hickok] He's naturally mendacious. Not to be trusted. If he had a hundred dollars he'd steal a stick of chewing gum.
- Truman Capote: We're not so different as you might think. Yeah, I was abandoned repeatedly as a child. My mama would drag me along to some new town so she could take up with another man she'd met. Night after night, she'd lock me in the hotel room alone. Mama would turn the latch and tell the staff not to let me out no matter what. And I was terrified. And I'd scream my head off until finally I'd collapse on the carpet next to the door and I'd fall asleep. Then after years of this she just left me with relatives in Alabama.
- Perry Smith: Who raised you up?
- Truman Capote: My aunts. And that's where I met Nelle. And she lived next door.
- Perry Smith: I thought he was a very nice, gentle man. And I thought so right up till I slit his throat. I didn't know what I did till I heard the sound.
- Perry Smith: You know Ricardo donated his eyes to science? Next week, some blind man will be seeing what Dick used to see.
- Dick Hickock: Yeah, you could be walking in Denver or somewhere, Truman, and suddenly these *eyes* will be staring at you. That would be something, wouldn't it?