Elmore Leonard Quotes - Interesting, Inspiring, Sharp, Witty, Entertaining Thoughts of Famous American Novelist, Crime Story Writer, Screenwriter

On this day in 2013, Elmore John Leonard Jr. died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Elmore John Leonard Jr. was a famous American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. His early novels published in the 1950s were Westerns, but he specialized in crime fiction and mystery thrillers, many of which were adapted into motion pictures. His most famous works include Hombre, Swag, City Primeval, LaBrava, Glitz, Freaky Deaky, Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out of Sight and Tishomingo Blues. Elmore John Leonard Jr. was born on October 11, 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana. In a statement, Elmore Leonard said - I spent most of my money on alcohol, girls and boats and wasted the rest.

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote that Leonard was considered one of the country's best crime writers. Much praise but not much and somewhat inaccurate. He was one of the best writers and he wrote about crime. That's not entirely accurate either. It's true that his novels (more than forty of them, and another unfinished at the time of his death) enjoyed the company of criminals and those who tried to stop them in their tracks. That was never hard to do because, as Leonard delighted in showing us, crime, more than anything else, even politics, allows people of all ages to present themselves in the full range of human inadequacy. Boy, they mess up.

After Elmore John Leonard Jr. died, Anthony Lane praised Leonard's ability to hear dialogue, comparing him to Charles Dickens and Evelyn Waugh, Leonard could make do with a single letter or a blank space where a letter should be. What the hell is Albanian? asks a man called Clement in Chapter 4 of City Primeval (1980). Typesetters might have balked at the fact that they had caught a typo, but Leonard never misheard. In this respect he was less like Ernest Hemingway, whom he admired and to whom he was often compared, than like Dickens, another city kid with his nose and ears to the ground... One hallmark of literary genius, we might say, is a democratic generosity toward one's mother tongue, the belief that every part or particle of speech, no matter how humble, can be put to useful use. He is no longer there but he gave us a fine consolation, if you have never read him or if you had never heard of him until yesterday or if you simply need a suitable way to read him. Mourn, pick up 52 Pick-Up, LaBrava, Swag or Glitz and listen to the voices of America calling out loud and clear and largely ungrammatically from Atlantic City, Miami, Hollywood and his home region of Detroit. Elmore Leonard told them the right way, and did them glory. As Clement used to say, he was a writer.

Here are some interesting, inspiring, sharp, witty, entertaining quotes from Elmore John Leonard Jr.

I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for the money.

Psychopaths...people who know the difference between right and wrong, but don't care. Most of my characters are like that.

And he thought that if you don't have the will to fight or wait for something, there's no point in being on earth.

It's not dreams that change, it's nights that change, it's not fate that changes, it's not fate that changes, always keep your hopes alive, fate may or may not change, but time does.

I decided to write Westerns because there was a great market for Westerns in the '50s.

If working was a good thing, rich people would have everything and not let you do it.

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

My goal is to entertain myself and amuse myself. I think if I'm entertained, a lot of other readers will be entertained.

I never look at my bad guys as just bad guys. They want almost the same thing you and I want, they want to be happy.

I enjoy writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, you have to enjoy it, or it will drive you crazy.

There's nothing like work to distract you from your worries.

When I start writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. Knowing too much at the beginning takes the fun out of the book.

My characters have to talk, or they're out. They audition in the opening scenes. If they can't talk, they're given less work, or they're kicked out.

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

I don't get into a situation of being afraid. I don't do anything dangerous and I always pay my bills.

All the information you need can be given in the dialogue.

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 for now two are enough.

If it sounds like writing, I'll rewrite it.

I don't think writers compete, I think they're all doing different things in their own style.

When you sow the seeds of distrust in the garden of idiots, Vincent said, wonderful things can happen.

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with the weather.

2. Avoid preambles.

3. Never use a verb other than said to advance dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb said, he warned gravely.

5. Keep your exclamation marks under control. You're allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words abruptly or everything's a mess.

7. Use the regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don't go into too much detail when describing places and things.

10. Try to skip the part that readers often skip.

My most important rule is the one that summarizes 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

-Elmore Leonard

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