Quote

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.

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.
Winning
Antagonist
Story
Protagonists
Comes
Shot
Stories
Judge
Book
Shots
Writing
Telling
Judging
Books
Protagonist

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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 don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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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 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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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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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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Skip the boring parts.
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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 try to leave out the parts readers skip.
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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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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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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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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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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I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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