Elmore Leonard Quotes - Page 2

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.

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.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

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

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

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

I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.

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

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

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.

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

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 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 don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.

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.

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.'

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

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

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

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.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

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

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.

There are 500 million people on Facebook, but what are they saying to each other? Not much.