Quote

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.

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.
Matter
Block
Going
Findings
Believe
Finding
Way
Areas
Writer
Certain
Littles
Little

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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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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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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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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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Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
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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'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.
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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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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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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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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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 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.
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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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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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