- Out
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- Nov 07, 2020
Elmore Leonard Quotes
Most Famous Elmore Leonard Quotes of All Time!
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- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
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'.
- Picture
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- Nov 07, 2020
I get letters. I get several a week, I think. A lot of people want a picture, a lot of people just want an autograph.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
There are some people who have been reading me for years, and they keep saying kind things about the writing. That's what you're writing for, to get people to respond to it.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I really - I don't take my work that seriously, and I think that's what keeps me loose. If I try to write, if I catch myself trying to write, I'll fall right on my face. I'll see it. If I see in the prose that I'm - 'Boy, look at me writing,' I rewrite it. I rewrite it because I don't, because I think it's distracting.
- Book
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- Nov 07, 2020
Sometimes female characters start out as the wife or girlfriend, but then I realize, 'No, she's the book,' and she becomes a main character. I surrender the book to her.
- Need
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm not aware of a cadence when writing, but I hear it after. I write in longhand, and that helps. You're closer to it, and you have to cross things out. You put a line through it, but it's still there. You might need it. When you erase a line on a computer, it's gone forever.
- Make
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- Nov 07, 2020
Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.
- Boring
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- Nov 07, 2020
I got halfway through 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.' I don't get it at all. What's the big thrill? It's boring.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
The truth is that the writers who most influenced me weren't people categorized as crime writers. I'd say I learned more from John O'Hara, who isn't much read today but whose short stories I really admired, and Hemingway, who I think has lasted pretty good.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
When people ask me about my dialogue, I say, 'Don't you hear people talking?' That's all I do. I hear a certain type of individual, I decide this is what he should be, whatever it is, and then I hear him. Well, I don't hear anybody that I can't make talk.
- Never
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- Nov 07, 2020
Never open a book with weather. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
- He
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- Nov 07, 2020
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
- Make
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- Nov 07, 2020
If I just sit here, what am I going to do? I don't have a trade. I don't teach or anything. I just love to make up characters and gradually build a story around them.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
To me, writing is the most fun. It's not always fun, but finally when you make it come out the way you want, it's then you can say, 'It's fun, boy.'
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I do this a lot with names. I'll start with a name, and then for some reason he won't talk much, or he's older than I pictured him just because of a name I give him. So then I finally get the right name, and I can't shut the guy up. This always happens. There's always a character who gives me trouble that way.
- Better
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- Nov 07, 2020
I decided to write Westerns because there was a terrific market for Westerns in the '50s. There were a lot of pulp magazines, like 'Dime Western' and '10 Story Western' that were still being published. The better ones paid two cents a word. And I thought, 'I like Westerns.'
- Mystery
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- Nov 07, 2020
I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
- Good
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- Nov 07, 2020