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I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.

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.
Going
Never
Mystery
Reader
Books
Book

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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.
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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 left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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I try to leave out the parts readers 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 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 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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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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Skip the boring parts.
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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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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.
Elmore Leonard