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.
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Pinochet and Barack Obama both have the same primary goal, and that's to be president and stay president as long as allowed.
-
Kelly Clarkson definitely reminds me of Motown. She's pop, but she's also very, very soulful.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I wrote my first play when I was eight.
-
When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.
-
In Ethiopia, democracy is in its infancy and it must be nurtured along by its leaders.
-
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.
-
I've found the world's most versatile word - 'cheeky.' The amount of ways you guys can use the word 'cheeky' is quite impressive.
-
I don't see democracy getting better. I see democracy diminishing. More rules, more legislation. Eventually governments will see everything.
-
Everybody always wants to rebel against their parents' music, but nobody listened to music louder than my 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.
-
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.
-
If the prophet Job were to walk into the room at this moment, I could sit swapping hard-luck stories with him till bedtime.'
-
But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.
-
You become the monster you fear the worst, so the monster won't overtake you.
-
Most serious writers refuse to make themselves available to the things that technology is doing. I've never been able to understand this sort of fear.
-
I love my jokes.
-
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.
