Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" 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
Related Quotes:
" I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it. "
Elmore Leonard
Fun
Make
Struggle
" 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
" 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
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Work
Writing
You
" When you are developing your style, you avoid weaknesses. I am not good at describing things, so I stay away from it. And if anyone is going to describe anything at all, it's going to be from the point of view of the character, because then I can use his voice, and his attitude will be revealed in the way he describes what he sees. "
Elmore Leonard
I Am
Attitude
Character
" I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back. "
Elmore Leonard
Back
Advertising
Thought
" I try to leave out the parts readers skip. "
Elmore Leonard
Out
Readers
Leave
" 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
" I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words. "
Elmore Leonard
Good
Because
He
" 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 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Money
Kind
Fun
" 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 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
" 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 want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books. "
Elmore Leonard
Books
Mystery
Know
" I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing. "
Elmore Leonard
Me
Want
Live
" 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Saying
Me
People
" When people ask me about my dialogue, I say, 'Don't you hear people talking?' That's all I do. I hear a certain type of individual, I decide this is what he should be, whatever it is, and then I hear him. Well, I don't hear anybody that I can't make talk. "
Elmore Leonard
Talk
Me
People
" I don't have any of the modern stuff. I don't have e-mail. I don't have a computer! "
Elmore Leonard
Any
Modern
E-Mail
" 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
" If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it. "
Elmore Leonard
Thing
You
Work
" 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 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. "
Elmore Leonard
Think
Work
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. "
Elmore Leonard
Ideas
Interesting
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. "
Elmore Leonard
Want
Think
Week
" 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
" 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'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
" I never know what I'm going to write next. If I'm still writing the book but I'm very near the end, and I begin to think of what I'd like to do next, then I'll know that what I'm writing is in hand. I'll think of an ending and it will be fine. "
Elmore Leonard
End
Book
Ending
" 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