Quote

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.

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.
Thinking
Places
Maybe
Two
Enough
Different
Men
Think

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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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 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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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive in addition to the project. It all goes together. It's fun to sit there and think of characters and get them into action, then be paid for it. I can't believe it when writers tell me 'I don't want to show my work to anybody'.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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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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I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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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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I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages take on the character's sound. I don't want the reader to be aware of me, writing.
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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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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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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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