Quotes from Elmore Leonard

The bad guys are the fun guys. The only people I have trouble with are the so-called normal types. Their language isn't very colorful, and they don't talk with any certain sound.

What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.

A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.

I never know what I'm going to write next. If I'm still writing the book but I'm very near the end, and I begin to think of what I'd like to do next, then I'll know that what I'm writing is in hand. I'll think of an ending and it will be fine.

There's nothing like work to take your mind off your worries.

If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.

Really, when I write a book I'm the only one I have to please. That's the beauty of writing a book instead of a screenplay.

I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.

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.

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

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.