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
becomes characters female main start surrender
Sometimes female characters start out as the wife or girlfriend, but then I realize, 'No, she's the book,' and she becomes a main character. I surrender the book to her.
characters gradually love sit
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.
fun believe character
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. I can't believe it when writers tell me 'I don't want to show my work to anybody'.
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.
character writing thinking
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.
character writing verbs
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.
bad certain guys normal people talk trouble
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.
leave parts people
I leave out the parts that people skip.
begin near
I never know what I'm going to write next. If I'm still writing the book but I'm very near the end, and I begin to think of what I'd like to do next, then I'll know that what I'm writing is in hand. I'll think of an ending and it will be fine.
leave parts people
I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
Writers - all writers, even screenwriters - like to make their mark. I don't think many screenwriters can write. They pass as writers.
front saw seen three woman worst
The movie, when I saw it in New York, I said, 'This is the second-worst movie ever made,' ... And the woman in front of me said to her husband, or her date, 'This is the worst movie I've ever seen .' And the three of us got up and left.
cracked gets messed
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.
catch keeps prose rewrite trying work
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.