Feel Quotes

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Elmore Leonard

American

October 11, 1925

Novelist

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

Tags: People Much Other

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

Tags: Make Writing Fun

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I don't have any of the modern stuff. I don't have e-mail. I don't have a computer!

Tags: Any Stuff Modern

I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.

Tags: Home Me Want

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.

Tags: People Think Just

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.

Tags: You Want Never

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.

Tags: You People Me

I used to be able to write five pages a day, every day, no problem. Now a good day is five or four pages, and that's from 9:30 A.M. until 6 P.M.

Tags: Good Every Now

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.

Tags: Good Work Like

It took me 20 years to buy an electric typewriter, because I was afraid it would be too sensitive. I like to bang the keys. I'm doing action stories, so that's the way I like to do it.

Tags: Me Like Because

I think the best advice I give is to try not to write. Try not to overwrite, try not to make it sound too good. Just use your own voice. Use your own style of putting it down.

Tags: Good Best Think

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.

Tags: Money Think Get

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.

Tags: Work Me Think

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.

Tags: Me Just Who

When you are developing your style, you avoid weaknesses. I am not good at describing things, so I stay away from it. And if anyone is going to describe anything at all, it's going to be from the point of view of the character, because then I can use his voice, and his attitude will be revealed in the way he describes what he sees.

Tags: Good Attitude You

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'.

Tags: Work Money Me