Elmore Quotes & Sayings

I can't say there was one thing in particular that helped prepare me for life beyond basketball except for the exposure to college and that laboratory, that allows us to learn who and what we are, and to be able to utilize that knowledge in real life. — Len Elmore

I take many things seriously. Rudyard Kipling, Harper Lee, Oscar Wilde, and Elmore Leonard are all held in the highest regard. I am dead serious when I discuss the many reasons that Ernest Hemingway's greatest contribution to literature was his generous decision to take his own life. I will not be sucked into a discussion of politics by people who prefer emotion to reason. The designated hitter is an abomination, and the day pitchers and catchers report is the start of the new year despite what those ill-informed calendar makers might try to tell you." "I — Brian D. Meeks

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

That dip in the road- that sends your belly to your throat ... that's how it feels when you kiss me. — Kellie Elmore

You were given your gift for the joy you may give in return. — Cornelius Elmore Addison

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'm concerned that young people, far too often, abdicate their responsibilities of learning and adapting and give that over to people who may not always have their best interests at heart. — Len Elmore

I won't read a book that starts with a description of the weather. I don't read books over 300 pages, though I'll make an exception for Don Delillo. — Elmore Leonard

If we are ready to tear down the walls that confine us, break the cage that imprisons us, we will discover what our wings are for — Michael Elmore-Meegan

Quiet and calculating. He hasn't changed that much since. Always mild-mannered, the nice guy - until someone steps over the line and challenges him. — 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

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

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

Flexibility, negotiation, and compromise are at the heart of loving relationships. — Ronn Elmore

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

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

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

I've always been taught that basketball is a team game and greater than the sum of its parts. — Len Elmore

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

I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write. — Elmore Leonard

All over the world ... the past was being wiped out by condominiums. — Elmore Leonard

Unexamined wallpaper is classroom practices and institutional policies that are so entrenched in school culture or a teacher's paradigm that their ability to affect student learning is never probed. — Richard Elmore

The train blows through town
delivering reality,
slapping my face and screaming,
"You are alone"
Rose colored memories drown,
taking their last breath. — Kellie Elmore

Resting on the roots of this old oak I lean back against his knotted trunk, shine my granny smith on my sleeve And ponder the days ... — Kellie Elmore

Home is anywhere you're willing to stay - anywhere you're willing to make change — Joel Saunders Elmore

I don't want someone to believe my lies, I need someone to accept my truths. — Kellie Elmore

Forward, towards the danger! — Phil Elmore

Maybe Heaven will be a library and then I might get to finish my 'to-read' list. — Kellie Elmore

I miss your face. That big bright smile. You always had it, in any weather. It's hard for me to find one these days. These cold November days. Except when I think of you. — Kellie Elmore

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

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 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

The Sky Is Crying"

The sky is crying
Look at the tears roll down the streets
The sky is crying
Look at the tears roll down the streets
I'm [Incomprehensible] looking for my baby
And I wonder where can she be

I saw my baby one morning
And she was walking on down the street
I saw my baby one morning
Ya, she was walking on down the street
Made me feel so good
Until my poor heart would skip a beat

I got a bad feeling
My baby, my baby don't love me no more
I got a bad feeling
My baby don't love me no more
Now, the sky's been crying
The tears rolling [Incomprehenisble] — Elmore James

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

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, whose reason for being might be geographical but whose growth is based on industry, jobs. Detroit has its natural attractions: lakes all over the place, an abundance of trees and four distinct seasons for those who like variety in their weather, everything but hurricanes and earth-quakes. But it's never been the kind of city people visit and fall in love with because of its charm or think, gee, wouldn't this be a nice place to live. — Elmore Leonard

And I laugh and I spin and dance and frolic in ecstasy and I ... I hurt no more, while you ... you petrified little man, are left to wonder if it's you I speak of. — Kellie Elmore

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

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

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

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

Poetry will die when love and pain cease to exist. — Kellie Elmore

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

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

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

It is noble to love another without caring to know who gave them breath. — Cornelius Elmore Addison

I'm a big fan of Elmore Leonard, and I've read Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre and so on. But I'd never read a crime novel that made me feel emotional at the end. — John Gordon Sinclair

Love is the castle, doubt is the moat, desire is the paddle and hope is the boat. — Kellie Elmore

For years, recycling programs proved unprofitable, and private institutions failed time and time again to create comprehensive programs that would dramatically reduce litter. Expensive recycling programs survived as the preferred and exclusive solution for solid-waste disposal in this country only because private corporations used their lobbying might to shift responsibility for the collection and recycling of corporate waste onto the public sector. In the end, consumers did most of the work, subsidizing (both through their labor and through taxes) the beverage industry's packaging-reclamation system, allowing companies to expand their operations without incurring increased costs. — Bartow J. Elmore

Sacrifices made for love are fine, unless the sacrifice is you. — Kellie Elmore

And the smoke that creeps off the tip of my cigarette and into the dim, scattered strands of light leaking off the moon, in through the clefts in the curtains, is much like my spirit trying to escape the burn of yesterday's presence. — Kellie Elmore

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

Sometimes the only way to ever find yourself is to get completely lost. — Kellie Elmore

Elmore James only knew one lick, but you had the feeling that he meant it. — Frank Zappa

I lost a boyfriend over Elmore James. You know that moment when you send mixtapes at fifteen? He sent me pop hits, and I sent him Elmore James, and I never heard from him again. — Imelda May

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

It ... whatever 'it' is, has swallowed me and I lie here in the pit of its cold dark stomach being eaten alive by its bile and I ... I don't even know if I want to be saved. — Kellie Elmore

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

What a more beautiful world this would be if we didn't wait til people were dead before we honored their spirit. — Kellie Elmore

Puttin' on a cowboy hat & a pair of boots doesn't make you country; Like puttin' on a ball gown & glass heels won't make me Cinderella. — Kellie Elmore

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

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 happens when you return
and find nothing
but a hollowed shell,
shingles and floor,
walls and echoes
and the light that lead you here
has now burned out
and the ones who built it
have traveled afar
and you cant go to them,
no matter what shoes you wear. — Kellie Elmore

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

Winter is much like unrequited love; cold and merciless. — Kellie Elmore

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

I have yet to be completely submerged in reality, for drowning in the sky. — Kellie Elmore

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

Watch me go. Watch me. Because you said i couldn't. Because you thought I wouldn't. Go on, cry now. Cry. — Kellie Elmore

Social media has infected the world with a sickening virus called vanity. — Kellie Elmore

No matter what, we have to keep moving forward, even if we have to crawl. — Kellie Elmore

And should I die in her care, I would leave smiling because, I will linger in the hills beside her ... — Kellie Elmore

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

Life is like a steering wheel, it only takes one small move to change your entire direction. — Kellie Elmore

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

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

Using adverbs is a mortal sin. — Elmore Leonard

Don't just follow your dreams; chase them down, grab hold and don't let go. — Kellie Elmore

Raylan got ready. — Elmore Leonard