Elmore Leonard Quotes & Sayings

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

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

Tony was a lawyer, so you had to accept the fact he was opinionated and full of shit. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

All the information you need can be given in dialogue. — Elmore Leonard

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

The shots left a hard ringing sound within the closeness of the brick walls. Terry held the pistol at arm's length on a level with his eyes
the Russian Tokarev resembling an old-model Colt .45, big and heavy
and made the sign of the cross with it over the dead. He said, "Rest in peace, motherfuckers," turned, and walked out of the beer lady's house to wait at the side of the road. — Elmore Leonard

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

A wife's faithful to her husband, subject to him. It's in the bible. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

She wondered what he looked like with his hat off and wondered again if he knew he was funny. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite. — Elmore Leonard

Leave out the parts that readers tend to skip. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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

I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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

God is God and He lets things happen and that's all there is to it. But He has reasons, and His reasons for something happening would be more important than a man's reason for questioning whatever it might — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

There were a lot of terms you had to learn, as opposed to the shylock business where all you had to know how to say was 'Give me the fuckin money. — Elmore Leonard

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, — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

Fate was working its ass off when it got us all together. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

I thought I explained it to you. Boyd and I dug coal together. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try not to write the parts that people skip. — Elmore Leonard

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

I've learned if you're ever angry enough to hit somebody, don't do it. Cool down and get yourself a pistol. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

Late in the afternoon the sky changed to pale gray and there was rain in the air, the atmosphere close and stifling, and a silence clung heavily to the flat colorless plain. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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.' — Elmore Leonard

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

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

Do you want me to tell you what I give a shit about at age sixty-five', Cullen said, 'and what I don't give a shit about?'
(page 262) — Elmore Leonard

I don't think writers compete, I think they're all doing separate things in their own style. — Elmore Leonard

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

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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

Psychopaths ... people who know the differences between right and wrong, but don't give a shit. That's what most of my characters are like. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

But he could never be a made guy himself because of his tainted blood, some Sunset Park Puerto Rican on his father's side, even though he was raised Italian. Chili didn't care to be made anyway, get into all that bullshit having to do with respect. It was bad enough having to treat these guys like they were your heroes, smile when they made some stupid remark they thought was funny. — Elmore Leonard

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

He sat in the living room in the dark, an expert at waiting, a nineteen-year veteran of it, waiting for people who failed to appear, missed court dates because they forgot or didn't care, and took off. Nineteen years of losers, repeat offenders in and out of the system. Another one, that's all Louis was, slipping back into the life. — Elmore Leonard

What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice. — Elmore Leonard

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

You thinkin bout the time I shot you and you rose from the dead? It only happens once in your life." He turned to Carol again and she said:
"Were you actually aiming at his hat?"
"I hit it didn't I? — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

The personality and the ego scream, while the soul whispers. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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

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

The bad guys are the fun guys. The only people I have trouble with are the so-called normal types. Their language isn't very colorful, and they don't talk with any certain sound. — Elmore Leonard

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. — Elmore Leonard

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

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

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