Quote

Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'

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.
Use
Never
Loose
Broke
Suddenly
Hell
Words

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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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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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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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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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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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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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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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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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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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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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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 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'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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I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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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.
Elmore Leonard