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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.

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.
Start
Show
Shows
Home
Live
Gillespie
Writing
Dizzy
Made
Immediately
Saws

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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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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 still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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.
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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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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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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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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