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.
Long
Time
Nuts
Drive
Fun
Told
Writing

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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I try to leave out the parts readers 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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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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 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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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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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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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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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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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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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
Elmore Leonard