Context

This line is spoken by Holly Golightly in the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, written by Truman Capote (1958).

Holly Golightly might seem like a party girl with no substance, but then we find out she's an orphan who got married when she was 14 years old and ended up running away to New York City the first chance she got. Oh, Holly.

This quote pops up once Holly's husband, Doc, comes to NYC to fetch her. She talks it over with him and then bids him adieu. But he shouldn't be too jealous of her living up in the big city (you know, up there in the sky). It's actually pretty lonely at the top. It's better just to take a look and see how pretty it is than to really fly way up there with the beautiful birds.

Hey, Holly kind of has a point. If you hurt yourself on the ground, no big deal. Just get back up and dust yourself off. If you break a wing in the sky? Watch out. That's a pretty long fall.

Where you've heard it

This is one quote from the book that didn't make it into the famous movie, so you'll probably only hear this line dropped among die-hard Truman Capote fans.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Okay, this is a little bit pretentious, right? It's kind of along the lines of a mo' money mo' problems type thing. The folks at your next get-together might not be so impressed that you're crying yourself a gold-plated river.