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.
Entertain
Readers
Reader
Please
Purpose
Enough
Feel
Feels
Entertained

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

Image
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know what that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I'm going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
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 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
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
Elmore Leonard
Image
Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
Elmore Leonard
Image
If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
Elmore Leonard
Image
What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
Elmore Leonard
Image
Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
Elmore Leonard
Image
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
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
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.
Elmore Leonard
Image
I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
Elmore Leonard