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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.

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.
Leave
Skip
Write
Readers
Important
Parts
Writing
Piece
Trying
Writers
Would
Advice
Reader
Pieces

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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 once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
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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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To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started 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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
Elmore Leonard
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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
Elmore Leonard
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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 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.
Elmore Leonard
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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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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
Elmore Leonard
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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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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.
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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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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
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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.
Elmore Leonard