Best Elmore Leonard Quotes & Sayings

Clifford paints true-to-life characters with the same gritty touch as the best of Dennis Lehane. Straightforward and edgy, Lamentation gnaws with nail-biting tension on every page. A must-read for contemporary hardboiled mystery fans who appreciate the type of terse dialogue and real life conflicts and settings Elmore Leonard so richly brought to life. — Robert Dugoni

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

To me, a book is a book, an electronic device is not, and love of books was the reason I started writing. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

People ask me, 'Why are you still writing books?' Like I'm still only writing to make money and as soon as I have enough I'll quit and go fishing? I like to write books. It's the most satisfying thing I do. — Elmore Leonard

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite. — 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 translate the American writers who are best with dialogue into German - someone like Elmore Leonard, or Tom Wolfe, who's also quite good with dialogue. It's very hard to translate them well. — Daniel Kehlmann

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

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

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

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

Using adverbs is a mortal sin. — 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

Raylan got ready. — 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

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. — 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

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

Leave out the parts readers tend to skip. (Elmore Leonard)

First you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for money. (Moliere) — Jan Shapin

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

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 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