Truman Capote
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50 free Truman Capote trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Truman Capote made himself one of the most recognisable writers of the twentieth century: a Southern prodigy with an unmistakable voice who conquered Manhattan, reinvented crime writing and then fell out with nearly everyone he had charmed. This quiz covers the whole story. There are questions on his small-town childhood beside Harper Lee, the stories and novellas that made his name, the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood, his turns as a screenwriter and actor, the Black and White Ball, and the society scandal that shadowed his final years. It suits readers, book clubs and pub quiz teams alike. The opening questions are ones most fans can reach, and the later ones reward anyone who knows the films, the feuds and the friendships behind the books.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which To Kill a Mockingbird character did Harper Lee model on her childhood neighbor Truman Capote?
Dill Harris
Dill Harris, the small boy with big stories who spends his summers next door to Scout, is Lee's portrait of the young Capote, who repaid her with a tomboy in his own first novel.
Q 02Which actress did Paramount cast in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's against the author's wishes?
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn earned an Oscar nomination in the part, but Capote said the studio had double-crossed him and disliked how far the 1961 film strayed from his novella.
Q 03In which state were the 1959 Clutter family murders that Truman Capote reconstructed in In Cold Blood?
Kansas
Kansas drew Capote west after he read a short news item about four killings in the farm town of Holcomb, and he took Harper Lee along to help win the trust of the locals.
Q 04Which pop artist sent Truman Capote fan letters, then based his first New York solo show on Capote's work?
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was 20 when the smouldering author photo on Capote's first novel captivated him, and his 1952 debut show was fifteen drawings based on Capote's writings.
Q 05In Capote's A Christmas Memory, what do Buddy and his elderly cousin bake and mail to President Roosevelt?
Fruitcakes
Fruitcakes take the pair four days to make, using pecans they gather themselves and whiskey bought from a bootlegger, and go mostly to people they have barely met.
Q 06Which Manhattan nightclub of the late 1970s counted Truman Capote among its celebrity regulars?
Studio 54
Studio 54 saw Capote party through the disco years beside a painter friend who made his portrait, even as he drifted in and out of drug rehabilitation clinics.
Q 07Which New York café society girl is the heroine of Truman Capote's 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany's?
Holly Golightly
Holly Golightly calms her nerves by visiting the jeweller's of the title, and her story's prose led Norman Mailer to call Capote the most perfect writer of his generation.
Q 08What of Truman Capote's was stolen at a 1988 Halloween party and returned in a coiled garden hose?
His ashes
His ashes vanished from the room where he had died, along with $200,000 in jewels, and were reportedly snatched again when taken to a play about him, though that thief was caught.
Q 09In which Woody Allen comedy does the real Truman Capote walk by as a supposed Capote lookalike?
Annie Hall
Annie Hall has Alvy people-watching in the park when the author himself ambles past in an uncredited cameo, a year after his one big acting role.
Q 10Which blonde star did Truman Capote want for the lead in the film of his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's?
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was Capote's choice and the script was to be tailored to her, but she chose The Misfits after Lee Strasberg warned that playing a call girl would hurt her image.
Q 11In which Southern city was Truman Capote born, before relatives raised him in small-town Monroeville?
New Orleans
New Orleans was where he was born at Touro Infirmary to a salesman father, and the city later became the starting point for the boy hero of his first novel.
Q 12In the Grand Ballroom of which New York hotel did Truman Capote throw his 1966 Black and White Ball?
The Plaza
The Plaza was a hotel Capote adored, and at midnight his masked guests were served its chicken hash, one of his favourite dishes, alongside spaghetti and meatballs.
Q 13How were Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the killers in Capote's In Cold Blood, put to death in 1965?
Hanging
Q 21Which 1948 novel made Truman Capote famous, helped by a provocative author photo on its jacket?
Other Voices, Other Rooms
Other Voices, Other Rooms spent nine weeks on the bestseller list, and the reclining portrait on its dust jacket caused as much comment as the prose inside.
Q 22What surname was Truman Capote born with, before he took the name of his mother's second husband?
Persons
Persons was the surname of his salesman father, and the boy became Truman Garcia Capote after moving to New York to live with his mother and her second husband, José.
Q 23Which famous poet did teenage copy boy Truman Capote anger, getting himself fired from The New Yorker?
Robert Frost
Hanging ended five years on death row for both men, and Capote did not finish his book until after the executions.
Q 14What bird name did Truman Capote give his circle of rich, elegant New York society women friends?
Swans
Swans was his word for the stylish wives who confided in him, until a 1975 magazine chapter aired their secrets and New York society shut him out.
Q 15Truman Capote died in 1984 at the Bel Air home of the former wife of which late-night television host?
Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson had often had Capote on his show, and it was the host's ex-wife Joanne who took the ailing writer in two days before he died.
Q 16In Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, which pet does the heroine never name and finally set loose?
A cat
A cat shares her apartment without ever being given a name, and she turns it loose just before she leaves for Brazil while out on bail.
Q 17Capote's friend Lee Radziwill, for whom he wrote a TV version of Laura, was which First Lady's sister?
Jackie Kennedy
Jackie Kennedy's younger sister wanted to act, so Capote adapted the 1944 film for her; the reviews were poor and it became his first major professional setback.
Q 18Which band's 1972 American tour did Truman Capote join as a magazine reporter, then refuse to write up?
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones let him tag along on their first American tour since 1969, but he never filed the article, so the magazine ran an interview with him instead.
Q 19In which Neil Simon spoof did Truman Capote play a millionaire who invites famous detectives to dinner?
Murder by Death
Murder by Death cast him as the reclusive Lionel Twain opposite Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness and Maggie Smith, and his only major acting role earned a Golden Globe nomination.
Q 20What nonexistent prize drew Perry Smith and Richard Hickock to the Clutter farmhouse in In Cold Blood?
A cash-filled safe
A cash-filled safe was a former cellmate's tale, since Herb Clutter did nearly all his business by check, and the pair left the house with little of value.
Robert Frost's displeasure cost Capote a two-year job sorting cartoons and clipping newspapers, after which he went south to stay with relatives and began his first novel.
Q 24What two-word label did Truman Capote give In Cold Blood, the 1966 bestseller he spent six years writing?
Nonfiction novel
Nonfiction novel was his name for a true story told with a storyteller's scenes and dialogue, though the detective in the case later said the closing graveyard scene was invented.
Q 25In Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, which state did the heroine flee after marrying a vet as a teenager?
Texas
Texas is where she was plain Lulamae Barnes, and her husband Doc turns up in Manhattan to coax her home, but she insists on staying in the city.
Q 26Which rival novelist, Truman Capote's sparring partner for decades, called his 1984 death a wise career move?
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal had feuded with Capote for years, a rivalry so heated that a playwright friend complained the pair seemed to be racing neck and neck for some fabulous gold prize.
Q 27Which actress played Harper Lee opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in the 2005 film Capote?
Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener's supporting turn was one of five Oscar nominations for the film, and Hoffman won Best Actor after months spent studying clips of Capote's voice and mannerisms.
Q 28Which English actor played Truman Capote in the 2006 film Infamous, opposite Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee?
Toby Jones
Toby Jones got the voice right by pushing his lower jaw forward slightly, but the film arrived a year after a rival biopic and was largely overshadowed by it.
Q 29Capote's The Muses Are Heard follows a Porgy and Bess company touring which Communist country?
Soviet Union
Soviet Union hosts supplied the title when a culture ministry official said the muses fall silent when the cannons are heard, and are heard when the cannons are silent.
Q 30Which playwright did Truman Capote satirise in a 1976 chapter, then mourn in a Playboy tribute?
Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams appeared thinly veiled in the chapter Unspoiled Monsters, written when their friendship had soured, yet Capote published a tribute after the playwright died in February 1983.