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" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Teach
Trade
Build
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" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Time
Book
Business
" I don't want to write any more screenplays, I'll tell you that right now. It's a waste of time. You've got too many people who think they have the answer to a good screenplay and they don't. No one knows. "
Elmore Leonard
Want
People
Think
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Funny
Writing
Humor
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Trees
Good
Scenery
" There are 500 million people on Facebook, but what are they saying to each other? Not much. "
Elmore Leonard
Facebook
Other
Saying
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Ideas
Interesting
Writing
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Truth
Good
Me
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Book
Weather
You
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Forever
Writing
You
" 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
Feel
Myself
Purpose
" Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers. "
Elmore Leonard
Even
Like
Mark
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
I Can
You
Like
" I don't get in a position to be frightened. I don't do anything dangerous, and I always pay my bills. "
Elmore Leonard
Position
Bills
Dangerous
" 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
Want
You
See
" I try to leave out the parts readers skip. "
Elmore Leonard
Out
Readers
Leave
" Writing on the beach is not what it's cracked up to be. The sand blows, and you perspire, and the page gets all blotty and messed up, so I don't do that anymore. "
Elmore Leonard
Writing
You
Up
" 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
Good
Problem
Good Day
" 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.' "
Elmore Leonard
Me
Book
She
" 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
Want
Think
Week
" 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
Tattoo
Dragon
Boring
" I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write. "
Elmore Leonard
Believe
Down
Inspiration
" Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write. "
Elmore Leonard
Tell
Write
Own
" I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it. "
Elmore Leonard
Fun
Make
Struggle
" 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
Say
You
Boy
" I don't have any of the modern electronics at all. I know the Internet would be a distraction. I would see things that interested me and never get back to writing. "
Elmore Leonard
See
Know
Internet
" 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
Less
Talk
Out
" 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.' "
Elmore Leonard
Write
Story
Like
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Start
Book
Character
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Way
Afraid
Like
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Me
Way
Trouble