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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.

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.
Shows
Along
Place
Taking
Stories
Story
Book
Help
Writing
Rather
Picked
Way
Show
Invisible
Helping
Remain
Tell
Rules

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
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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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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 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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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 still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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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 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 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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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'.
Elmore Leonard