In Cold Blood Quotes

Question 1

Prison in prison

Answer 1

There stands a curious little building: a dark two-storied building shaped like a coffin. This establishment…constitutes a prison inside a prison.

Question 2

Perry O’Parson defecating

Answer 2

Perry O’Parsons, “The One-Man Symphony,” returned in the guise of a recurrent dream…there was no applause, none, and yet thousands of patrons packed the vast and gaudy room…his top hat tumbled; urinating, defecating, Perry O’Parsons entered eternity.

Mention he tap dances and plays the guitar, harmonica, banjo, and the drums

Question 3

Rain

Answer 3

It is easy to avoid the rain if you have a raincoat

Question 4

Rich and hang

Answer 4

The rich never hang only the poor and friendless

Question 5

Younger photo

Answer 5

He thanked me and gave me a picture of himself. A little Kodak made when he was sixteen years old. He said it was how he wanted me to remember him, like the boy in the picture.

Question 6

Mirage

Answer 6

Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another.

Question 7

Diamond tree

Answer 7

Thus, the snake, that custodian of the diamond bearing tree, never finished devouring him but was itself always devoured…Ascension to a paradise that in one version was merely “a feeling,” a sense of power, of unassailable superiority…

Question 8

Crying like a child

Answer 8

Crying like a child…Well, I went to him. The door of his cell. He reached out his hand. He wanted me to hold his hand, and I did, I held his hand…

Question 9

Dick and the dogs

Answer 9

It was an old half-dead mongrel, brittle-boned and mangy, and the impact, as it met the car, was little more than what a bird might make. But Dick was satisfied. “Boy!” he said…which was something he did whenever the opportunity arose. “Boy! We sure splattered him!”

Question 10

Dick and church

Answer 10

Though as a child he had attended church, Dick had never “come near” a belief in God; nor was he troubled by superstitions.

Question 11

Perry and church

Answer 11

…Though he was contemptuous of any exhibition of piety, felt “upset” when he heard Willie-Jay sing “The Lord’s Prayer”; the hymn’s grave language sung in so credulous a spirit moved him, made him wonder a little at the justice of his contempt.

Question 12

Dick with his family at home

Answer 12

…In the pleasant kitchen of a modest farmhouse, Dick was consuming a Sunday dinner… He had arrived home at noon, kissed his mother…seeming quite his ordinary self.

Question 13

Chewing gum + hundred dollars

Answer 13

I’m a thief too, but only if I don’t have the money to pay. Dick, if he was carrying a hundred dollars in his pocket, he’d steal a stick of chewing gum.”

Question 14

Jesus painting

Answer 14

The Reverend Post, overhearing the conversation, joined in…‘Any man who could paint this picture can’t be one hundred percent bad. All the same it’s hard to know what to do.’

Question 15

Brutalisation of the Clutter murders by Perry, targets

Answer 15

I only knew the Clutters maybe an hour. If I’d really known them, I guess I’d feel different…But the way it was, it was like picking targets off in a shooting gallery

Question 16

Kenyon shot

Answer 16

He’d been shot in the face, directly, head-on…His head was propped by a couple of pillows, like they’d been stuffed under him to make an easier target.

Question 17

Jury quote

Answer 17

“…Half a dozen farmers, a pharmacist, a nursery manager, an airport employee, a well driller, two salesmen, a machinist, and the manager of Ray’s Bowling Alley. They were all family men (several had 5 children or more), and were seriously affiliated with one or another of the local churches…”

PARAPHRASED: Although 4 of these jurors said they were personally acquainted with Mr Clutter, said it would not hinder their ability to reach an impartial verdict.

“‘Ordinarily I’m against it. But in this case, no’ - a declaration which, to some who hear it, seemed clearly indicative of prejudice. Dunnan was nevertheless accepted as a juror.”

Question 18

Holcomb reaction

Answer 18

“Feeling wouldn’t run half so high if this had happened to anyone except the Clutters. Anyone less admired. Prosperous. Secure. But that family represented everything people hereabouts really value and respect, and that such a thing could happen to them…”

Question 19

Holcomb depressed

Answer 19

“…well, it’s like being told there is no God. It makes life seem pointless. I don’t think people are so much frightened as they are deeply depressed.”

Question 20

Clutters pay

Answer 20

“…it wasn’t Dick….And it wasn’t because of anything the Clutters did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life. Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it.”

Question 21

Exploitation of Perry

Answer 21

“…be profitably exploited…He had proceeded to woo Perry, flatter him—pretend, for example, that he believed all the buried-treasure stuff and shared his beachcomber yearnings and seaport longings, none of which appealed to Dick…”

Question 22

Perry’s treasure

Answer 22

“Prospecting for gold, skin-diving for sunken treasure—these were but two of the projects Perry had ardently proposed. “This is authentic. I’ve got a map. I’ve got the whole history. It was buried there back in 1821—Peruvian bullion, jewelry. Sixty million dollars—that’s what they say it’s worth.”

Question 23

Dick’s dream

Answer 23

“Dick wanted “a regular life,” with a business of his own, a house, a horse to ride, a new car, and “plenty of blond chicken.”