Quote

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.

Elmore Leonard

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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.
Feel
Feels
Entertained
Entertain
Readers
Reader
Please
Purpose
Enough

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

Image
All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
Elmore Leonard
Image
Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
Elmore Leonard
Image
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Elmore Leonard
Image
To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing.
Elmore Leonard
Image
Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
Elmore Leonard
Image
It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
Elmore Leonard
Image
There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
Elmore Leonard