Elmore Leonard Quotes

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's Ten Rules of Writing
1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

I don't believe in writer's block. I don't know what that is. There are just certain little areas that I know I'm going to get through. It's just a matter of finding a way.

You never know what somebody might tell you,' Chris said, 'when they think you're somebody else.

Yeah, ESP," Juvenal said. "You know how you do it? You listen to the other person instead of thinking of what you're gonna say next. That's all, and you learn things.

I want you to understand," Raylan said, "I don't pull my sidearm 'less I'm gonna shoot to kill. That's its purpose, huh, to kill. So it's how I use it.

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.

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.

Leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.

She said very quietly, "Mitch?" "What?" "There's somebody downstairs." "I know there is.

At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.

There's something happening here, I know it. It's right in front of my face, but I just can't see it.

I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.

He called out to no one in particular, Fire in the Hole!

Write the book the way it should be written, then give it to somebody to put in the commas and shit.

Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.

Writing screenplays is not my business. I've written half a dozen, and maybe half of those were made. But it was never a satisfying experience. It was just work. You're an employee. You would be told what to do. Studio execs would cross out my dialogue and put in their dialogue.

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.

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.

Avoid Prologues. They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword.

He watched the eternity of the sky. The dark was restful, but the vastness was cold and made you draw something close to you.

Using adverbs is a mortal sin.

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

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.

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.'

Boyd looked at him now like he was trying to decide something in his mind.
"You'd shoot me, you get the chance?"
"You make me pull," Raylan said, "I'll put you down.

I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.

In the light of eternity, is it better to sell out and ride or stand up and walk?

He saw Harvey and Edgar catch each other's eye as he looked off toward the strains of "Alley Cat," Jesus, hoping they'd rush it faster than the others or he'd have to get out of here. It was the only song he knew that made him want to break something.

I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.

A pen connects you to the paper. It definitely matters.

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.'

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.

Try not to write the parts that people skip.

Don't interrupt a man when he's giving himself hell.

I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

Bones turned a page, read down the entries and stopped.
"You got a miss. Guy's six weeks over."
"He died," Chili said.
"How you know he died, he tell you.

If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.

I always felt, you don't have a good time doin crime, you may as well find a job.

I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.

Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.

He walked back into the living room, looking again at the illuminated photo of the man with the brown beard and long hair.
"Who's that, a friend of yours?"
Mr. Sweety glanced over. He said, "This picture here?" and sounded surprised. "It's Jesus. Who you think it was?"
"It's a photograph," Raymond said.
Mr. Sweety said, "Yeah, it's a good likeness, ain't it?

And she thought if you don't have the desire to fight or wait for something there's no reason for being on earth.

I started out of course with Hemingway when I learned how to write. Until I realized Hemingway doesn't have a sense of humor. He never has anything funny in his stories.

At the bottom of the hill they came out of the trees to a busy street and Antwan said, "We cross here."
"Ain't no lights here," Antwan said. "Just look out for the ones trying to hit you. There's a nice-looking blonde-haired female human lives around here - any time she sees me she tries to run me down.

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.

I would say just start writing. You've got to write every day. Copy someone that you like if you think that perhaps could become your sound, too. I did that with Hemingway, and I thought I was writing just like Hemingway. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me - he didn't have a sense of humor. I don't know anything he's written that's funny.

If a man must make excuses for himself, continually argue with himself that he is a man, then he is better off dead.

All the information you need can be given in dialogue.

Louis shook his head. "I don't know." "What's that?" "About going with you." "You don't think you will or you know it?" Louis shrugged and drew on his cigarette. "I said before I ain't talking you into anything. But just answer me this, Louis. What does a three-time loser have to lose?" He started to back out of the drive and stopped. He said, "Louis? You only think you're a good guy. You're just like me, only you turned out white.

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.

If I have several bad guys and I only want to end up with one of them, then I have to decide which one I want in the end. And normally it's the one who is the most interesting talker.

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.

"Wonderful things can happen", Vincent said, "when you plant seeds of distrust in a garden of assholes."

If you're going to spend your life standing on principle, you want to be sure everyone understands what the principle is.

I've quit writing screenplay [adaptations]. It's too much work. I don't look at writing a novel as work, because I only have to please myself. I have a good time sitting here by myself, thinking up situations and characters, getting them to talk - it's so satisfying. But screenwriting's different. You might think you're writing for yourself, but there are too many other people to please.

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.

I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.

It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.

It took me 20 years to buy an electric typewriter, because I was afraid it would be too sensitive. I like to bang the keys. I'm doing action stories, so that's the way I like to do it.

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.

Ernesto Palmer got the name Chili originally because he was hot-tempered as a kid ... Now he was Chili, Tommy Carlo said, because he had chilled down and didn't need the hot temper. All he had to do was turn his eyes dead when he looked at a slow pay, not say more than three words, and the guy would sell his wife's car to make the payment.

When I get an idea for a book, something appeals to me, it's usually a character. I'll see a picture of a female marshal in front of the courthouse in Miami and she's got a shotgun on her hip and it goes up on an angle. And she's good-looking. And I say, 'I've got to use her.'

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.

These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story,

Well, does it make sense to you?"
He said, "It doesn't have to, it's something that happens. It's like seeing a person you never saw before - you could be passing on the street - and you look at each other..."
Karen was nodding. "You make eye contact without meaning to."
"And for a few moments," Foley said, "there's a kind of recognition. You look at each other and you know something."
"That no one else knows," Karen said. "You see it in their eyes."
"And the next moment the person's gone," Foley said, "and it's too late to do anything about it, but you remember it because it was right there and you let it go, and you think, What if I had stopped and said something? It might happen only a few times in your life."
"Or once," Karen said.

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.

You know what people who go to nude beaches look like?"
"Tell me."
"People who shouldn't go to nude beaches."
"Is Chili Palmer joining the tour?'
"I wasn't told"
"Ask Nick for me."
About a minute went by. Now he heard Nick saying, "Tell him if he goes near Chili Palmer I'll see that he suffers excruciating pain and will never fucking walk again in his life."
And, then Robin's voice: "Nick said to tell you that if you go near Chili Palmer he'll have your legs broken."
"Why couldn't he say it like that?"
"He reads, but the wrong books.

I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.

You look back,' Max said, 'you can't believe that much time went by. You look ahead and you think, shit, if it goes that fast I better do something with it

I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.

I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.

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.

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.

The personality and the ego scream, while the soul whispers.

I can write anywhere. But I don't use a computer, and I could never write on a laptop. I hate the sound of computers; it's too dull, like it's not doing anything for you.

It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.

Skip the boring parts.

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.

That goddamn Louis, you see what he done? Put his cigarette butt in here. I'm gonna punch him right in his smokin' mouth." Max turned back to the form, glades mutual casualty printed across the top. He said, "I know how you feel. But when you hit an ex-con who's done three falls, they say you better kill him.

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.