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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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.
Sound
Everyone
Write
Tell
Writing
Going
Presume
Anybody
More quotes by Elmore Leonard
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
If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
Elmore Leonard
My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too.
Elmore Leonard
Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
Elmore Leonard
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.
Elmore Leonard
I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
Elmore Leonard
All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
Elmore Leonard
I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
Elmore Leonard
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
Elmore Leonard
To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing.
Elmore Leonard
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.
Elmore Leonard
Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
Elmore Leonard
I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
Elmore Leonard
I won't read a book that starts with a description of the weather. I don't read books over 300 pages, though I'll make an exception for Don Delillo.
Elmore Leonard
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Elmore Leonard
It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
Elmore Leonard
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Elmore Leonard
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.
Elmore Leonard
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.
Elmore Leonard
I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
Elmore Leonard
