Quote

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.

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.
Living
Offer
Looks
Climate
Palm
Work
Mountain
Oceans
Good
Ocean
Scenery
Like
Offers
Detroit
Tree
Palms
Views
Mountains
Cities
Trees

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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.
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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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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story.
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Skip the boring parts.
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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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Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
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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 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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I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive in addition to the project. It all goes together. It's fun to sit there and think of characters and get them into action, then be paid for it. I can't believe it when writers tell me 'I don't want to show my work to anybody'.
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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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Never use an adverb to modify the verb 'said' . . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.
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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.
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A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.
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