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There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.

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.
Worry
Nothing
Take
Work
Mind
Like
Worries

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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Skip the boring parts.
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My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
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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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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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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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I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages take on the character's sound. I don't want the reader to be aware of me, writing.
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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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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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If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
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Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
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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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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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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.
Elmore Leonard
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All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
Elmore Leonard
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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
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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.
Elmore Leonard
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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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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
Elmore Leonard