Quotable Quotes: Elmore Leonard

I try to leave out the parts that people skip.

~Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard is another writer I have never read (there have to be millions of writers I’ve never read!). It seems to me this quote captures the essence of writing. Be brief and always keep a firm hold on your reader’s attention.

I need to keep get rid of all the excessive words in my writing. I am quite sure there are a lot of them. I know, for example, I am guilty of using words such as “that”, “then”, “the” when I probably shouldn’t.

Elmore Leonard is supposed to be a virtuoso with dialog, an area I know I need help with. I think I will go to my library and see if I can find something by him.

Quotable Quotes: E. L. Doctorow

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

– E. L. Doctorow

I’d heard of E. L. Doctorow, but I’ve never read anything by him. At least, I don’t think I have. I suppose there could be a short story somewhere and I’ve just forgotten I read it. But, during my wanderings across the internet, I ran into this line and it made me laugh.

I’d never thought of writing as a license for acting crazy. But who knows? Maybe it is. Maybe there are thousands of writers who are not quite normal and just don’t know it.

God knows other creative people – actors, singers, designers – act crazy sometimes. But they are also lot more in the public eye and I always figured public pressure drove them bonkers. But maybe it’s not, maybe being creative predisposes you to act crazy.

Quotable Quotes: Ray Bradbury

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

— Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

Writing makes writers drunks huh? I suppose it’s better than getting drunk on real stuff. And I suppose that is the whole point – not to let reality drive you to drink. That is to say, not to let reality depress you so much that you have to drink to feel better. Kind of a depressing thought really, that enough writers do that for Ray Bradbury to admonish people not to let reality destroy their dreams. Possibly he was just trying to tell people not to give up. Considering how hard it is to get published, perseverance is important.

Ray Bradbury wrote The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451. The Martian Chronicles read like a bunch of connected short stories and at the time I was disappointed because I expected a novel. I liked his Fahrenheit 451 much better.