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
crime good influenced john lasted learned people short stories truth whose writers
The truth is that the writers who most influenced me weren't people categorized as crime writers. I'd say I learned more from John O'Hara, who isn't much read today but whose short stories I really admired, and Hemingway, who I think has lasted pretty good.
leave parts people
I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
computers
I can write anywhere. But I don't use a computer, and I could never write on a laptop. I hate the sound of computers; it's too dull, like it's not doing anything for you.
finally gives guy name older shut talk trouble
I do this a lot with names. I'll start with a name, and then for some reason he won't talk much, or he's older than I pictured him just because of a name I give him. So then I finally get the right name, and I can't shut the guy up. This always happens. There's always a character who gives me trouble that way.
answer good people screenplay time
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.
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.
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.
rich good-things ifs
If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.
boring skip
Skip the boring parts.
annoying prologue introduction
Avoid Prologues. They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword.
block believe inspiration
I don't believe in writer's block or waiting for inspiration. If you're a writer, you sit down and write.
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.
romantic-love looks too-late
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.
sound doe make-sense
It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.