Quote

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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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.
Sound
Proper
May
Narrative
Writing
Rhythm
Way
Sounds
Like
English
Disrupt
Allow
Rewrite
Gets
Usage
Learned
Composition

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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.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
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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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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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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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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 left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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.
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If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.
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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
Elmore Leonard
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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.
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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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