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.
Loose
Broke
Suddenly
Hell
Words
Use
Never

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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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 still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite 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 try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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