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.
Suddenly
Hell
Words
Use
Never
Loose
Broke

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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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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 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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What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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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 still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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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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My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too.
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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 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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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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Skip the boring parts.
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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 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.
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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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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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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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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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