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I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.

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.
Fun
Struggle
Writing
Make
Chore
Chores

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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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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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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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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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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 don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
Elmore Leonard
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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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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.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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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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I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.
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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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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.
Elmore Leonard
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
Elmore Leonard
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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
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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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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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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 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.
Elmore Leonard