Quote

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.

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.
Start
Outlines
Lasts
Discovering
Last
Plot
Book
Begin
Writing
Follow
Thing
Novel
Much
Takes
Time
Pleasure
Outline

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Skip the boring parts.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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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 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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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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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 have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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'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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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 don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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