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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.

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.
Twenty
Twenties
Guys
Four
Guy
Hours

More quotes by 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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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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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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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 left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
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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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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
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It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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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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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 think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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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 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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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.
Elmore Leonard
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
Elmore Leonard
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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.
Elmore Leonard