Notes from Wikiquote
"Making It Up as I Go Along", AARP Magazine 52 (4A), July/August 2009
Variants
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
More quotes by Elmore Leonard
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.
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.
My grandson, Max, who is an all state lacrosse player, once gave me some lacrosse advice: A limp pass is like a limp dick; it doesn't get the job done. I think the same can be said about limp writing.
Elmore's Ten Rules of Writing (2007)
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.
Out of Sight (1996)
All Elmore Leonard quotes →