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

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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 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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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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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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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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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 want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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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 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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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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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 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 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 have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with 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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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
Elmore Leonard