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.
Words
Use
Never
Loose
Broke
Suddenly
Hell

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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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Skip the boring parts.
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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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 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 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 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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Not dreams but night changes, not destiny but path changes, always keep your hopes alive, luck may or may not change, but time definitely chages.
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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 have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
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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.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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 want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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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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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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