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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.

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.
Sense
Doesn
Doe
Make
Like
Sound

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A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.
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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 want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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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Skip the boring parts.
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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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I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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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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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I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
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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.
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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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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.
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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 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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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
Elmore Leonard