Elmore Leonard Quotes

My characters have to talk, or they're out. They audition in early scenes. If they can't talk, they're given less to do, or thrown out.

Elmore Leonard

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Quotes to Explore

• My first agent told me to change my name or I'd only play Jewish parts or Indians. Of course I refused to change it. Shortly thereafter she came up to me and told me I had to keep it, because her numerologist said it was very, very good.

  

  Malachi Throne
  • Up
  • Good
  • She

• I always wanted to be a singer, and so, when I was 5 years old, I started acting classes so I could be a better performer. I wanted to have a powerful voice so I could be heard.

  

  Q'orianka Kilcher
  • Powerful
  • Better
  • Acting

• You know how you can be romantic? You can be romantic by going to a beautiful setting, sitting on a park bench, and getting good ole-fashioned golden arches, a.k.a. McDonald's. That's probably the best I can do romantically.

  

  Omari Hardwick
  • Good
  • Beautiful
  • Best

• Would I be happy just practicing law? No. Would I be happy just doing TV and speeches? No. I want to do all of these things and be as active as I can... but my main goal is to have some degree of influence on the public discussion.

  

  Ed Rendell
  • Happy
  • Law
  • Influence

• Pinochet and Barack Obama both have the same primary goal, and that's to be president and stay president as long as allowed.

  

  Viggo Mortensen
  • Long
  • Goal
  • President

• Kelly Clarkson definitely reminds me of Motown. She's pop, but she's also very, very soulful.

  

  La'Porsha Renae
  • She
  • Me
  • Pop

• I loved working with kids, and kids are the most incredibly discerning audience. And if they don't believe you, they will tell you and let you know. I mean, kids is where it's at, really.

  

  Sally Hawkins
  • Believe
  • Kids
  • Know

• The plan is to make money, and we know the fans are going to ask for mixtapes, and those mixtapes are going to hit. So when we put a tape out, we have more money coming in, that's why we work hard at it.

  

  Quavo Migos
  • Work
  • Money
  • Why

• I wrote my first play when I was eight.

  

  Pam Gems
  • Play
  • First
  • Eight

• When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Wish
  • Been
  • Quarrel

• I've been having this really weird anxiety dream about arriving too late or too early, and the people in charge are like, 'You have to leave! You have to go back to the hotel and get ready!' And I use the wrong exit, and I'm running down the red carpet in pyjamas, like, 'No! Don't look at me!'

  

  Florence Welch Florence and the Machine
  • People
  • Dream
  • Running

• In Ethiopia, democracy is in its infancy and it must be nurtured along by its leaders.

  

  Jack Kingston
  • Democracy
  • Leaders
  • Ethiopia

• Quite often, little germs of ideas have come from something that I've observed or someone's told me. The process of it becoming fiction is expanding and extending it: stretching the rubber band of reality.

  

  Laura Wade
  • Reality
  • Band
  • Ideas

• I've found the world's most versatile word - 'cheeky.' The amount of ways you guys can use the word 'cheeky' is quite impressive.

  

  Taylor Lautner
  • World
  • You
  • Most

• I don't see democracy getting better. I see democracy diminishing. More rules, more legislation. Eventually governments will see everything.

  

  Taki Theodoracopulos
  • Democracy
  • Better
  • Rules

• Everybody always wants to rebel against their parents' music, but nobody listened to music louder than my dad.

  

  Dan Auerbach The Black Keys
  • Music
  • Parents
  • Dad

• There was a time when researchers imagined that Plan B, or the morning-after pill, might become not an emergency form of contraception but a routine one; women would take it once a month to induce a period and never even know whether they had gotten pregnant.

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • Time
  • Women
  • Morning

• I don’t tell myself I am a hero. People do look up to performers and think of them as heroes...Hero worship in India is too big. It is both right and wrong. It is fair to respect people who have done things that others haven’t but it is not right to traet them as gods.

  

  Kapil Dev
  • People
  • Up
  • Done

• If the prophet Job were to walk into the room at this moment, I could sit swapping hard-luck stories with him till bedtime.'

  

  P. G. Wodehouse
  • Job
  • Luck

• I seize all opportunities with two hands. Everything that's happened to me has taught me to live in the moment as much as possible.

  

  Sam Taylor-Wood
  • Live
  • Moment
  • Opportunities

• The difference between people isn't in their class, but in themselves. Only from the middle classes one gets ideas, and from the common people--life itself, warmth. You feel their hates and loves.

  

  D. H. Lawrence
  • People
  • Life
  • Hate

• Fairest and best adorned is she Whose clothing is humility.

  

  James Montgomery
  • She
  • Humility

• My characters have to talk, or they're out. They audition in early scenes. If they can't talk, they're given less to do, or thrown out.

  

  Elmore Leonard