Best 57 quotes of Elmore Leonard on MyQuotes

A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.

After 58 years you'd think writing would get easier. It doesn't. If you're lucky, you become harder to please. That's all right, it's still a pleasure.

All the information you need can be given in dialogue.

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.

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

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.

Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword.

Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.

Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

Don't worry about what your mother thinks of your language.

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

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.'

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.

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

I don't get in a position to be frightened. I don't do anything dangerous, and I always pay my bills.

I don't have any of the modern stuff. I don't have e-mail. I don't have a computer!

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.

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.

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 get letters. I get several a week, I think. A lot of people want a picture, a lot of people just want an autograph.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.

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.

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

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'.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

It's like seeing someone for the first time, and you look at each other for a few seconds, and there's this kind of recognition like you both know something. Next moment the person's gone, and it's too late to do anything about it.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'

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.

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.

Skip the boring parts.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.

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.

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.