Quotes from Elmore Leonard

You know what happens when you play a country tune backwards? You get your girl and your truck back, you're not drunk anymore and your hound dog comes back to life." She said, "I was born in Nashville

An officer of the law tells an undesirable like yourself to get out of town. It's done all the time. If you don't choose to leave, then we have to play by your rules.

The truth is: criminals are a police problem; individuals accused of crime are mine.

MEN who discussed murder in normal tones.

Why do guys love to fart?" "They're expressing themselves.

Late in the afternoon the sky changed to pale gray and there was rain in the air, the atmosphere close and stifling, and a silence clung heavily to the flat colorless plain.

Ryan circled the pool, around the diving board, and moved down to the shallow end. That was enough bug-catching for one day.

I did see pictures of Mom posing nude in the backyard Reno left on the dresser one time and I had an intimate look at my mother.

He watched the eternity of the sky. The dark was restful, but the vastness was cold and made you draw something close to you.

but he knew by the way the man was looking at him his words had been wasted. "I'm going up the mountain," Tanner said.

You take one more step, Raylan said, I'll shoot you. That's all I'm gonna say.

Sometimes the fear was stronger than the anger. The plain was silent and in its darkness there was nothing to hold to.

You know but don't want to let on, Raylan said, seeing Nicky's hands right there at his waist, the boy still in the game, waiting to see if you have a move. Well, I'll tell you something. Shooting at a person is not the same as shooting out on a firing range. Even if you're a dead shot, it don't mean you can look a man in the eye and be able to pull the trigger. I know this for a fact, partner, cause I taught the use of firearms at the training academy.

Whether you're faking one or the other it isn't worth the state you get yourself in.

I want you to understand," Raylan said, "I don't pull my sidearm 'less I'm gonna shoot to kill. That's its purpose, huh, to kill. So it's how I use it.

Has anybody ever spoke kindly to them? I mean has anybody ever helped them overcome the hold the devil's got on them? Has anybody ever showed them the path of righteousness, or explained to them Almighty God's justice and the meaning of everlasting salvation

It was a feeling Raylan had, so it didn't have to make sense. At least not right away. The thing to do was let his mind work on it while he wasn't looking.

The man out on the street was something without a human nature or a personality of its own. He was on a stage. The street was another world.

If a man must make excuses for himself, continually argue with himself that he is a man, then he is better off dead.

I want you to look at somebody here's come to visit you." Jackie watched the young guy scowl as Nicolet shook him again and his eyes opened.

if you need nothing, you have everything. . .

Clement said it was like conditioning, prepar-ing for the ball-clutching moments of life while building your sphincter muscle. After lying in front of a freight train you can lie in bed in your underwear while two cops are visiting, asking about a certain black Buick—and while a mean-looking Walther P.38 automatic is hidden nearby at that very moment—and not worry about making doo-doo in the bed.

Roy might know who James Joyce is, I'm not sure, but it wouldn't matter. You mention books to Roy and he thinks you're trying to act superior.

You're pretty sure we're going to Yuma.