Elmore Leonard - Character Quotes

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When you meet somebody who bores you, you have to put up with him until he leaves. But when you meet a boring character, you turn the page.

Elmore Leonard

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with 'she asseverated,' and I had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

Elmore Leonard

If an adverb became a character in one of my books, I'd have it shot. Immediately.

Elmore Leonard

Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.

Elmore Leonard