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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

Elmore Leonard

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Elmore Leonard
Age: 87 †
Born: 1925
Born: October 11
Died: 2013
Died: August 20
Author
Film Producer
Novelist
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
New Orleans
Louisiana
Dutch Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr.
Readers
Parts
Reader
Leave
Writing
Trying
Skip

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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Not dreams but night changes, not destiny but path changes, always keep your hopes alive, luck may or may not change, but time definitely chages.
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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees. And there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living.
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I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages take on the character's sound. I don't want the reader to be aware of me, writing.
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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
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I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
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I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story.
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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
Elmore Leonard
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My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
Elmore Leonard
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Skip the boring parts.
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I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
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I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know what that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I'm going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.
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I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.
Elmore Leonard