Quote

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.
Chore
Chores
Fun
Struggle
Writing
Make

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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 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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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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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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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
Elmore Leonard
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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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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'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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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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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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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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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Skip the boring parts.
Elmore Leonard
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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