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

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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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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.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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'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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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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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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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 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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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 left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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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