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

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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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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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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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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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 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 want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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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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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.
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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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Skip the boring parts.
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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 try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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