Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard, Jr.was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth11 October 1925
CityNew Orleans, LA
CountryUnited States of America
character auditions scene
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.
waste stories short-story
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
book want mystery
I want the reader to know what's going on. So there's never a mystery in my books.
writing thinking ideas
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.
writing stories invisible
It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.
writing thinking years
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.
fun struggle writing
I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
boring skip
Skip the boring parts.
rich good-things ifs
If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
details stories want
Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
writing trying reader
I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
writing bucks posterity
I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.
book ice weather
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.
writing sound
Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.