There's a line in Harold Brodkey's short story 'The State of Grace' that sums up the outlook of his marginalised protagonist, and all adolescent outsiders that have ambitions to rise above their tormentors and triumph: 'If dreams came true, then I would have my childhood in one form or another, one day.' It's a line that seems applicable to Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams.
These two were cast as queer outsiders in infancy; each of them recalling they didn't want to be girls, while suggesting it might have been the better option as they failed to measure up to the standard masculinity of their fathers and their peers. This is just one experience that these southern-born writers shared, as relayed in the new documentary Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation.