Quote

I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'

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.
Told
Writing
Long
Time
Nuts
Drive
Fun

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.
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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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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 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.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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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Skip the boring parts.
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To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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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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.
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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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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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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'.
Elmore Leonard