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

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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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I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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.'
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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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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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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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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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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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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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.
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