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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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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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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 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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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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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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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.
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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 want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
Elmore Leonard
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
Elmore Leonard
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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.'
Elmore Leonard