Quote

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.

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.
Individual
Reader
Write
Scene
Character
View
Attitudes
Take
Attitude
Passages
Writing
Particular
Narrative
Even
Focus
Individuals
Point
Aware
Sound
Characters

More quotes by Elmore Leonard

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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 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.
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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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Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
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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's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
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I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
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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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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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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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If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Elmore Leonard
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Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
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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 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 don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
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Skip the boring parts.
Elmore Leonard
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Try not to write the parts that people skip.
Elmore Leonard