Elmore Leonard Quotes
Collection of top 80 famous quotes about Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard Quotes & Sayings
Happy to read and share the best inspirational Elmore Leonard quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.
I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
— Elmore Leonard
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.
— Elmore Leonard
He called out to no one in particular, Fire in the Hole!
— Elmore Leonard
Leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.
— Elmore Leonard
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
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.
— Elmore Leonard
Don't interrupt a man when he's giving himself hell.
— Elmore Leonard
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
— Elmore Leonard
Quiet and calculating. He hasn't changed that much since. Always mild-mannered, the nice guy - until someone steps over the line and challenges him.
— Elmore Leonard
A wife's faithful to her husband, subject to him. It's in the bible.
— Elmore Leonard
I love Elmore Leonard. To me, True Romance is basically like an Elmore Leonard movie.
— Quentin Tarantino
Fate was working its ass off when it got us all together.
— Elmore Leonard
Skip the boring parts.
— Elmore Leonard
I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
— Elmore Leonard
You never know what somebody might tell you,' Chris said, 'when they think you're somebody else.
— Elmore Leonard
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
— Elmore Leonard
I used to be able to write five pages a day, every day, no problem. Now a good day is five or four pages, and that's from 9:30 A.M. until 6 P.M.
— Elmore Leonard
My characters have to talk, or they're out. They audition in early scenes. If they can't talk, they're given less to do, or thrown out.
— Elmore Leonard
I don't get in a position to be frightened. I don't do anything dangerous, and I always pay my bills.
— Elmore Leonard
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.
— Elmore Leonard
It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.
— Elmore Leonard
All over the world ... the past was being wiped out by condominiums.
— Elmore Leonard
Psychopaths ... people who know the differences between right and wrong, but don't give a shit. That's what most of my characters are like.
— Elmore Leonard
It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.
— Elmore Leonard
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.
— Elmore Leonard
A: Anyone who looks like she does has to be somebody ... B: What does she look like?
A: An ice cream. I had a spoon I would have eaten her. — Elmore Leonard
My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.
— Elmore Leonard
I've learned if you're ever angry enough to hit somebody, don't do it. Cool down and get yourself a pistol.
— Elmore Leonard
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.'
— Elmore Leonard
I don't think writers compete, I think they're all doing separate things in their own style.
— Elmore Leonard
Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.
— Elmore Leonard
Raylan got ready.
— Elmore Leonard
Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.
— Elmore Leonard
Tony was a lawyer, so you had to accept the fact he was opinionated and full of shit.
— Elmore Leonard
Do you want me to tell you what I give a shit about at age sixty-five', Cullen said, 'and what I don't give a shit about?'(page 262) — Elmore Leonard
She wondered what he looked like with his hat off and wondered again if he knew he was funny.
— Elmore Leonard
I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.
— Elmore Leonard
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
And she thought if you don't have the desire to fight or wait for something there's no reason for being on earth.
— Elmore Leonard
Avoid Prologues. They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword.
— Elmore Leonard
If a man must make excuses for himself, continually argue with himself that he is a man, then he is better off dead.
— Elmore Leonard
Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
— Elmore Leonard
He watched the eternity of the sky. The dark was restful, but the vastness was cold and made you draw something close to you.
— Elmore Leonard
When you're really cute that's all you have to be, you make a career out of it. someone asks you what you do, you say, 'nothing. i'm cute.
— Elmore Leonard
If you're going to spend your life standing on principle, you want to be sure everyone understands what the principle is.
— Elmore Leonard
I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.
— Elmore Leonard
Try not to write the parts that people skip.
— Elmore Leonard
Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.
— Elmore Leonard
There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.
— Elmore Leonard
I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.
— Elmore Leonard
I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
— Elmore Leonard
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite.
— Elmore Leonard
Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
— Elmore Leonard
All the information you need can be given in dialogue.
— Elmore Leonard
There's something happening here, I know it. It's right in front of my face, but I just can't see it.
— Elmore Leonard
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
She said very quietly, "Mitch?" "What?" "There's somebody downstairs." "I know there is.
— Elmore Leonard
There were a lot of terms you had to learn, as opposed to the shylock business where all you had to know how to say was 'Give me the fuckin money.
— Elmore Leonard
To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing.
— Elmore Leonard
I thought I explained it to you. Boyd and I dug coal together.
— Elmore Leonard
"Wonderful things can happen", Vincent said, "when you plant seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes."
— Elmore Leonard
There are 500 million people on Facebook, but what are they saying to each other? Not much.
— Elmore Leonard
Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
— Elmore Leonard
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.
— Elmore Leonard
I don't have any of the modern stuff. I don't have e-mail. I don't have a computer!
— Elmore Leonard
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.
— Elmore Leonard
Write the book the way it should be written, then give it to somebody to put in the commas and shit.
— Elmore Leonard
The personality and the ego scream, while the soul whispers.
— Elmore Leonard
A pen connects you to the paper. It definitely matters.
— Elmore Leonard
Using adverbs is a mortal sin.
— Elmore Leonard